Working around the edges
by Estantia
Summary: When a visitor from another universe appears the Winx girls find the other universes get involved with each other a lot more than they realised... even if the ones that cross between can only work around the edges.
1. A normal day?

Disclaimer: Winx club characters and world were not created by me, however the plot and characters that drop in later are. If you want to see them you'll have to wait for chapter 2 though :P

* * *

Welcome to Alfea, the prestigious academy for fairies where the students learn to use their magic, their heads and quite often their credit cards in preparation for life after school. Of course their training is also needed to save the world, defeat villains and avoid trouble in general.

However who said there aren't other people out there doing the same thing? What's more, who said 'out there' just meant the realms?

* * *

With a mutter and a shift the sleeping fairy turned over and buried her face into the comfortable pillow beneath her head as a burst of bright light fell across her face. Most teenagers would have her complete sympathy, after all it was appallingly early in the morning and the early part of November, meaning that it was far more tempting to curl up in the nice warm bed and ignore the annoyingly perky roommate than get up.

All hope of the former option vanished as her friend's voice rang out in a tone of cheerfulness that knew all too well how the sleeper was feeling and was completely disregarding it. "Rise and shine Ms. Musa! I know you're not asleep."

"What are _you_ so cheerful about?" Musa said in a disgusted voice as she sat up, rubbing her eyes free of sleep, "It's just a day like any other!"

"Ah yes, but we get to use the magical reality chamber for Palladium's class and I'm the only person that has finished the essay due to be handed in to Grizelda this afternoon," came the digital fairy's cheerful reply, opening the curtains and keeping her face to the window with a smile as there was a flurry of movement behind her that left Musa streaking for the shower.

"I love being logical," Tecna commented smugly to the empty room with a smile.

* * *

As the group of friends approached their third lesson at least one fairy was visibly panicking, after all, Grizelda's lesson was two hours away (not including the lesson) and Stella wasn't the best of essay writer's. This was why Her voice could be heard as she desperately begged the digital fairy, "I mean I really don't know what to do! Seriously, Tecna, we all need your help! Even Flora hasn't quite finished and-"

"I'm only a few paragraphs off..." interrupted a gentle voice from Flora who had been walking on Tecna's other side. Her statement was promptly ignored by the solar fairy but the others were paying attention.

"I mean, we can always work on it together at lunch time? PLEASE Tecna! We need you!" Stella's voice rose to a near yell on the last sentence as they entered the control room of the magical reality chamber, which made even the normally good natured elvan professor turn his head irritably.

"Miss Stella, much as I am sure your life is absolutely fascinating it is not the topic for today's training," he stated, voice a little clipped as he turned back to monitoring the chamber. Seeing the group of pupils already inside Bloom's eyes widened, "Professor, are we late?"

"No actually," Palladium replied, voice back to its normal easygoing tone, though there was a slight hint of annoyance behind it, "It's just that these students turned up early in order to get a longer lunch break... to write their essays for Grizelda."

"Oh thank goodness!" Stella said with relief, "I'm so glad I'm not the only one!"

"Professor Palladium?" Musa asked with a note of concern, hearing something in his tone that worried her, "Is something wrong?"

"With me? Oh no, nothing wrong at all, it's just that whenever one of the other teachers springs an essay like this the students panic and try to skip lessons to do it. Meaning that it is much harder for the other teachers to teach and generally becomes a much more stressful situation!" The elf straightened his jacket and spoke in a less stressed tone, "However we all must cope, so it's nothing really, after all, my potions assignments have done much the same before."

"I didn't know that how the students were doing had so much effect on you professor," Flora said gently, walking up to stand next to the teacher. "I'll tell you what, why don't I bring some of the plants down to your classroom? I'm sure they'd like the sunlight and having plants around normally relaxes people, especially elves."

"Why thank you Flora!" Palladium said happily, "I think that's an excellent idea!" he turned back to the screen in time to see one of the girls sway slightly and whispered a spell before speaking, voice echoing round the magical reality. "That's it for the moment girls! Take a nice relaxing break to regain your strength Selene, you did some excellent work, just try to improve that stamina and you'll be all set for your enchantix!"

The other group came out, Selene practically glowing with pride for all that she was nearly falling flat on her face, though she let Luna slide an arm under her shoulders to support her with a tired smile. At this motion Palladium frowned slightly and directed her to the nurse as Musa turned to the others.

"Hey guys... how come everyone's so tired? I mean Selene's usually really perky and today she looks absolutely drained, Palladium's letting things get to him too and that's REALLY not normal," Musa pointed out, "you know him, he's the nicest of all of them!"

"You think something's up?" Layla asked, "as in magically up?"

"Oh don't worry about it," Stella advised, "it's probably just because of the mid-terms! Everyone's got too much work, she was probably just up late!"

"I hope you're right," Musa replied uncertainly as Palladium turned back to them.

"OK, you girls are up next. Now remember, you will be facing a selection of creatures that can come from anywhere in the realms, so be careful when fighting. However I will be keeping an eye on you to ensure that you won't be hurt."

"Whatever you pick had better not mess with my hair!" Stella said as the others walked into the chamber, though Bloom hung back to drag her friend in after them.

"Come on already..."


	2. Now THAT is a glitch

Once more I would love to say I created Winx club and all things associated but that was Rainbow. However in this chapter you'll start to meet the people I DID create, though the strange mage is property of DuelMasterP, who has given me complete rights to abuse... I mean USE his character... shifty eyes

Okay just to cover everything, all of the 11th Clan and matters associated are joint property of myself and DuelMasterP.

Note: It's been edited, and the description of DMP's changed a bit.

* * *

As the virtual world loaded Bloom grinned, she always loved coming into the chamber, and this time was no exception as a dense forest formed around them, leaving the Winx club in a small clearing. As soon as the girls transformed Tecna's voice came from Bloom's right. "Be ready. These opponents can be anywhere." The others gave a single nod of agreement, "Right."

Suddenly a swirling oval of dark blues and purples with traces of fiery red formed in front of them, all six of the fairies transforming and preparing their first attack as a man stepped out. Stella's face winced as she took in the dark blue hoodie he wore and the black hair that fell in loose blue-tipped spikes around his face and top of his shoulders. The black cargos he wore combined with the backpack also confirmed what each had thought individually. This guy had a dark aura and they were not going to be fooled by his apparent obliviousness to their presence, though the appearance he made of being enthralled in a conversation via his watch was pretty convincing.

"...and that's why I designed that new dual cannon," the watch concluded as the man shrugged,

"I suppose my Liger could use it..." his voice trailed off as he paused to look around at the trees, a confused look on his face, "Wait a moment... Did I just walk out of a dark portal? Upright?"

"Hmmm. That is unusual," the man on the other end of the watch replied thoughtfully as Bloom threw fire at him, Musa's shockwave attack hot on the tail of it. What they were not expecting was for the man's head to snap up, take in the incoming attacks and react as quickly as he did, ducking the fireball before rolling away from the shockwave and standing, lifting his watch to talk to it again before shutting it off.

"At least the locals are friendly... I'll chat with you later..."

Stella glanced over at Bloom and shrugged, "He may have a rubbish outfit, but this guy's fast..."

"Well I don't get much of a choice in the scorch marks... Frigging lightsiders..." came the muttered reply as he arranged his backpack more comfortably, looking up at the hovering fairies.

"It's talking back?" Now Stella was confused, "Are they meant to do that?"

The man just looked down at his watch and shrugged, "Light siders... You can't live with them, and you're not allowed to kill them either..."

"I hope you realised you programmed me to be light," retorted a female voice that seemed to belong to the watch itself, immediately catching Tecna's interest, though she hastily shook herself as he replied to it.

"Oh yeah..." With a quick sidestep he dodged the flurry of vines that shot at him from the ground beneath, landing in a crouch before looking up at Bloom and Stella, who had combined their powers into a large fireball, mouth opening in a vague sound of confusion.

All six of the watching fairies stared in amazement as the figure stood, catching the flaming mass in his hands before pushing it upwards, creating a firework effect as it exploded in mid air a few feet above his head. It also seemed that the running commentary wasn't going to end either... "It's no where near my birthday, but still..."

"Actually your birthday's the day after today..."

"Who cares?" the man replied as an ice shield flew up around him just in time to make Layla and Musa's joint attack useless. As vines shot up from the ground once more to wrap around his ankles it seemed they had finally found a way to beat him as he looked down, using the same expression as when the fireball had been thrown at him.

Seizing the opportunity Tecna released an electrical blast at the man, only to have it blocking by a crackling shield that formed, apparently made out of lightning itself as he complained, "Why does everyone know floral magic?"

Even they didn't seem to inconvenience him much though, a short blast of fire later and the vines were gone, leaving Bloom to look helplessly at the others, "He has a counter for every one of our attacks..."

"I believe he is slowed by Flora's plants," Tecna commented as Stella raised her staff above her head.

"As he's got a dark aura, how about I give them some light?"

The area in front of them started to glow an almost blinding white, forcing the fairies to shield their eyes before Stella's spell faded, allowing the girls to see the effect it had on the magic user. Or at least they would have seen the effect had he been there.

"Where did he go?" she asked, looking around as the male voice spoke once more, causing them all to spin around to stare at the mage, who had lent against a tree as if not bothered with the fight at all. In fact he looked up as neutrally as when he entered.

"Oh right... Sorry... I thought you'd finished..."

Before the others could attack again Tecna held out her hand to stop them, "Have any of you noticed that he hasn't attacked us yet?"

"Is there a bug in the code?" Musa asked, glancing up at where Palladium should be, to be rewarded by the Professor's voice.

"I think Musa may be right... I selected a three headed dragon..." Almost immediately after Palladium said this there was a roar and the trees on one side of the clearing shook as the monster made its way out, one head swinging around to check for other enemies while the other two were staring straight at the group, green-blue scales glinting as the mouth of the first opened, causing the fairies and mage to scatter before the idle tone of the man cut in.

"And there was me thinking it was going to be like a blue-eyes... Ah well..." He shrugged as Bloom glanced between the two.

"Two opponents?" she asked curiously, her reaction getting another shrug from the dark-clothed man, but this time sounding as if he was trying to explain.

"Actually, I still haven't figured out where on Mobius I am." The strangers words made Stella blink and look to Tecna for help, only to see her analysing the dragon that Layla and Musa were rapidly flying around.

"Mobius?"

"It's a translation error turned synonym for Earth..." the mage replied, causing a look of understanding to spread over Stella's face as she turned back.

"This isn't Earth, silly!"

Tecna's voice interrupted the conversation as the digital fairy herself flew backwards between them, shooting a blast of energy. "Might I remind you that we have a dragon to contend with?"

"Oh, right," they said simultaneously as the rest of the fairies watching dived in, the man dropped and blurred as he ran, drawing a blade that crackled with lightning and streamed fire from the blade, which seemed to be made of ice. He leapt and stabbed at the neck where the heads joined, using is momentum to kick back off the dragon and land running, avoiding all three jets of flame

As all the angry heads tried to blast him to oblivion Layla took the opportunity to throw a web of sticky water molecules over the left hand head, blinding it as Musa sped up behind, launching a shockwave at the thrashing head. With a hiss and a clap of air the wings snapped open, slapping the pigtailed fairy to the side.

"Catch her!" Flora shouted, palm stretched to the trees as she ducked the swinging tail. As soon as her power got to the trees there was a flurry of movement, leafy branches moving together to support the injured fairy before she shook her head and stood up, powering back into the fight.

By unspoken agreement the group had assumed their separate functions. As Layla worked to blind all three heads Musa used shockwaves to rattle them, causing spurts of fire to swing in all directions as they tried to catch the fairy that was making their heads ring Once the blindfolds were on Layla then started to try and stopper their mouths, in the hopes that she could stop the fire blasts, however they moved so fast it was hard to aim, so instead she went to give strength to Flora's plants.

Stella and Bloom's attacks shot at the large wound that the unknown mage had opened where the necks joined as beneath them the man in question also circuited, though he seemed to be concentrating on taking out the wings and tail that threatened to knock the fairies out of the air. Flora also seemed to be trying to restrict the dragons movements, vines leaping up to wrap around the legs, making their way across the scales as if it were a trellis to bind the wings. It's just a pity her vines were susceptible to fire, though the ones encasing his body had become too thick to be freed entirely.

With a roar the wings ripped free of the vines trying to bind them and beat hard, trying to take off as Stella and Bloom combined their powers into the molten fireball they had used earlier. The right head had just managed to throw off the watery blindfold in time to see the incoming threat as it slammed into the dragon's chest. With a roar of pain a stream of flame shot at the pair as they scattered.

"Really, you could be nicer! Then we wouldn't fight you!" Stella reprimanded, drawing a slight chuckle from the nature fairy with the similarity to something her pixie would suggest.

"I didn't attack you and you still tried to fight me!" yelled the dark mage, "But anyway, this thing's a program!" He stood opposite the dragon and dropped the sword, gathering a dark mass of power in his hands before shooting it at the place the fireball just exploded, causing the dragon's heads to slump in defeat as vines wound around their necks, tying all three together as it collapsed.

"Excellent!" called out a voice from above them, "Now I'm going to shut the chamber down and figure out what went wrong with the chamber."

The six fairies watched the trees and dragon fade away from sight, replaced with the circular space of the magical reality chamber and the bridge that all seven of them were standing on. The fairies exchanged looks between each other as they studied the man, who was standing on the bridge looking around at the chamber with some interest, leaning on the barrier that stopped them falling off.

There was silence as the fairies watched him for a moment, enough time for Palladium to approach the group from the control room. Stella broke the silence with a question, sounding uncertain of what was going on.

"Er... Shouldn't he have disappeared when the chamber shut down?"


	3. A lot of info at once

Proof that I did not make Winx club: I would NOT have given it to 4kids... Seriously, have you SEEN how much stuff they changed? Mind you, DuelMasterP has way more of a grudge against them than I do... He inspired the general 4kids rant.

Oh yes, and prepare for a lot of referencing from here on in... bonus points if you can name all of them!

Edited!

* * *

"Last time I checked I was kinda human..." was the reply from the other figure as he stood up properly with a stretch. Palladium now seemed purely curious, intrigued by this human who could not only use magic, but walk directly into their school.

"So how did you get in here?" he asked, head tilted to one side as he made his way through the group.

"Well that portal like thing I stepped out of might be how... I guess I know why I didn't do a face plant now..." At this there were another set of confused looks going round, even from the ones who actually knew what a face plant was. Instead Tecna decided to change the subject.

"So how did you block our attacks so easily?" Once more the answer she received was in the tone that Bloom had mentally dubbed the, 'oooookay you're crazy' tone.

"Practice..."

"So are you some kind of wizard?" That was Layla contributing to the discussion as Palladium led them towards the control room to talk and the next group to go in and start training.

"Nah.. Just human..."

THAT statement drew some stares as the group blinked. People from earth didn't have magic, humans weren't capable of it, so how on earth (Bloom excused the pun) was he so good at it?

"So how can you use magic?" she asked curiously, apparently this person was from her home, though he sounded English rather than American. At least he didn't use the tone that nearly implied she was crazy when he answered.

"Anyone can use magic... It's just that my dark amulet enhanced my abilities a few years ago..."

"Wait, hold up," Stella interrupted, stopping walking to stare at him in mild horror, "You use _dark_ magic?"

Strangely the stranger didn't seem to take this as an insult, replying as cheerfully as before as he continued to walk."Yeah. It's great for halloween parties..."

"So you're not evil?" Musa checked uncertainly, well he didn't SEEM so evil, though they had mistaken him for it at first.

"Any spell can be used for evil or good..." he replied, in a tone that implied he'd been through the argument of dark always being evil too many times to count, "And some are just iffy... Like the games of darkness..."

"Well they sound bad..." Stella protested, determined to be proven right. Instead he just considered it for a moment before replying.

"Well overall they are because the loser normally loses their soul, but some shadow magic is used for good. Like Pharaoh Atemu..."

"What's a Pharaoh anyway?" Stella interrupted a bit snappily looking back at Tecna as she scanned an article for information.

"Apparently they were kings of an ancient human civilisation thousands of years ago on earth."

"Don't get too worried about it..." the dark mage shrugged, leaning against a wall, "At a guess, I'd be the only one around here who could summon a shadow game... Which I've never been able to do so far anyway..." By this point Palladium had started up the program and turned to take part in the conversation, eyes alight with interest.

"But what you implied is that it's a fairly common type of magic."

"In a couple of other universes yes... I doubt it appears around this one though..." again he used the relatively uninterested tone, like the girls when Stella tried to give them fashion advice.

"So you're saying you travel _between__universes_?" Palladium sounded like he was in heaven, while the others were as in awe as he was, but also at the fact that this was so normal for the stranger, as he shrugged it off again.

"That is SO not possible!" Stella said before Bloom grinned at the solar fairy with the sweet tone of comeback.

"Now you know how I felt when you told me there were other realms."

"Yeah, and all of this because I'm a gamer who watches tons of cartoons..." the stranger said with his own grin at the fairies before one did a double take.

"Ok, what does that have to do with it?" Musa sounded incredulous, but the man just explained as calmly as before.

"Every universe is a game or a cartoon or a film in at least one other universe..."

"So you mean," Flora started before pausing to think her question through, "it's possible to have knowledge about a universe before you go there?"

"Handy isn't it?" he grinned, "If it matters, I'm guessing I've appeared just before series 3..."

At this point there was a collective confused silence, at which the mage sighed and explained. "This universe is a cartoon in my home universe... There's the original Italian version with an English dub... And then a 4kids version..."

"How can you tell which one we're in?" Musa asked, "if they're not that different..."

"Easy," he replied, "Stella? What's Winx?"

"The source of a fairy's magical power of course!" Stella exclaimed, "If you don't know that then..."

"Thought so, stupid 4kids..."

"Sow how did you tell the difference between the versions with that definition?" Tecna asked as the mage grumbled under his breath, returning to his normal voice as her replied.

"Well in the original, Winx was just a word Bloom makes up in episode 2..." he nodded to the technical fairy with his next sentence, "Other clues include Digit's VA."

"Huh?" Stella looked at the others, unexpectedly getting a reply from Musa.

"Voice Actor."

"And 4kids trying to turn several characters into comic relief characters." He couldn't help but grin at Stella as he said that, drawing protests from the Solar fairy as the others in the group also started to smile.

"Although the theory does seem to fit with the knowledge you have displayed of us, I am finding it hard to believe that you have studied us from another universe..." Tecna commented as she started to try and find references to anything he had said, and naturally failing. Meanwhile the dark mage was still leaning against the wall.

"I still find it hard to believe that Pippa can use Chaos powers..."

Luckily they were saved from the complete and utter dead silence by the female voice that belonged to his watch. "Possible 1st Clan activity detected."

"I'm guessing just outside..." the dark mage asked.

"As always..." he grinned and pushed off the wall as he raised his wrist, a hologram of the courtyard outside forming in mid air before he lowered it, shaking the sleeve of his hoodie back over it.

"Sounds fun..." The other occupants of the room watched as he walked outside, then there was a pause as they watched the door, rewarded a moment later by the man's head looking round the door frame with a rueful grin,

"Er... Which way's outside?"


	4. First arrival

The disclaimer that ought to be blatantly obvious by now... I do not own Winx club or any other cartoons/anime that may be mentioned in the story apart from the Room 11 characters and world, yes that includes the villains too.

People will get the joke in the last chapter's intro now...

Edited!

* * *

The group ran out of the main doors into the courtyard to see a growing number of faces looking down onto the area where two men in suits, one blonde and one with dark hair and beard were being attacked by the academy's three favourite witches. To be fair the men weren't doing too badly and several students were watching from their balconies as the Trix called off their attack to glare at the Winx club, who had transformed somewhere along the way.

However the first one to speak was the blonde-haired man, turning to face the dark mage with a smirk, "I was wondering when the 11th clan would turn up..."

"We've been having a few bugs with our customer service lines..." the dark mage replied, voice dripping with sarcasm as the other suited man spoke, with a slight hint of cultured confusion.

"What customer service?"

"Exactly..." replied the dark mage.

At the lack of a further reaction Sebjon called out to the fairies around, perfectly heard to all the people in the courtyard, "I'm sure you can all see he has a dark aura and you all know that's a sign that he's evil!"

"You're attacking them along side their arch enemies and you're telling them that I'm evil?" the other mage replied disbelievingly, he didn't need any fancy spell in order to be heard, nor did anyone need an explanation of the tone that implied this guy was even crazier then he thought.

"Well you are dark..." The blonde mage named Sebjon shrugged, not amplifying his voice now.

"You must think these guys are stupid..." the dark mage was interrupted by a light cough from his watch.

"Actually, he is half right..."

"Alter-egos don't count..." he grumbled as Sebjon raised his hands above his head.

"How many evil doers would use this spell?" Sebjon countered, the glowing hands above his head unleashing a burst of brilliant light that made the onlookers shield their eyes. The dark mage at the front of the group seemed the worst affected, but stood up, as relaxed as always.

"Well you for one." At this point it seemed the witches had taken all the talking they could stand, plainly itching to fight the fairies. Icy was the first to move, rising to the air with a scowl, shortly followed by the other two witches powering up.

"This is boring..." the ice fairy said in a bored voice as her palms shot out, sending multiple sharp icicles shooting through the air at the fairies as the energy blasts of Darcy and Stormy were also released towards the group.

"Good point," the friendly stranger agreed as a shadowy shield appeared between him and the witches attacks, absorbing them before fading away to give a clear view as Sebjon released a green bolt that was dodged by the target as the fairies flew up to engage in their own fight with the witches.

"If that's how you want to play..." the dark mage stepped back and brought his hands together with a boom, causing a shockwave the forced Sebjon backwards and sent Darcy tumbling from the tail end that hit her by accident. The bearded man however, did not seem nearly as impressed by the attack, stroking his chin lightly in thought.

"Not bad... But not good either..."

"Oh c'mon... I've only just started studying Qi energy..." the dark mage moaned as the other suited man charged at him. With a few quicks movements and a frazzle of lightning the suited man flew behind him as the friendlier stranger frowned slightly.

"Something wrong guys? You usually put up some kind of fight..."

The suited man stood and turned, addressing the watching fairies with hands spread to prove a point, "You see? He keeps attacking us!"

"Er... Actually... You charged at me..." he pointed out as the blonde mage looked over at his partner.

"I told you that was a rubbish plan."

"Plan B then?"

"Wait, you guys actually have plans?" he asked before all five of the invaders turned from what they were doing to aim.

There was a blast of energy as five blasts shot towards him, the purple waves from Darcy mixing with ice blue and lightning from above as a beam of acid green and electric blue spun towards him from either side, causing an explosion that fried the grass with a hiss. However as the smoke cleared there was nothing there, much like the last explosion he had been in.

"Where did he go?" asked Flora

"It doesn't seem like teleportation..." Tecna murmured as fire bloomed behind Sebjon, throwing him forwards onto the scorched grass to reveal the mage with a hoodie standing behind him.

"Gotta love darkspeed..." he said with a grin before he and Jebus shot towards each other, both drawing swords, the dark mage's the mixture of ice, fire and lightning whereas the ones of the suited mage were much more similar to those found at Red Fountain. The two mages met with a clash before the dark mage nodded approvingly.

"Not bad..."

"I've been practising..." replied the suited man with a shrug before they broke free and attacked once more, the mage with blue-tipped hair using quick and fast movements while the bearded man put more power into his strokes, though the heavy strokes never seemed to be fast enough to catch the grinning mage, who was clearly the more experienced of the two, managing to lock the blades and force the suited man to relinquish one as the fairies and witches watched with interest.

The dark mage grinned as the second sword spun away from the bearded man, who scowled and ran to his unconscious partner, keying something into a palm top computer that caused both to disintegrate into blue light. Before the witches could move to attack the club's new friend was already gone, blurring as a covering of ice, lightning and fire formed around his hands and arms. With a jump he soared above them and shoved his hands out towards them, the covering shooting off his hands, tangled together with purple-blue magic as it hit the Trix, throwing them away backwards to pile into the ground. With an angry shove Icy pushed the others off her and stood, plainly fuming as she went to try and attack, only to vanish with the others as Darcy completed her own spell.

"Well that fight sucked..." their friend said as the mage lowered himself back to the ground and approached the fairies, "but even after that disappointing battle I need some caffeinated sugar..."

"Pardon?" Flora asked before transforming back to normal.

"Stuff like Cola or Red Bull..." the stranger replied as a look of recognition crossed Bloom's face,

"Oh! You mean you want a soda!"

"You know I never did get why Americans re-named everything..." he commented as the group started to walk back towards the main school, hands back in his hoodie pocket as he watched Flora get more and more confused.

"What are they?"

"They're drinks that contain caffeine, and in most cases, sugar..."

"Why do you need that?"

The stranger grinned as he stepped into the shade of the building, "We Brits pretty much run on caffeine... That's why we mostly drink tea..." This time Musa interrupted for clarification.

"Brit? Does that mean someone from earth?" Bloom laughed and explained

"It means he's from Britain, Musa,"

"Didn't he say he was from earth?" the musical fairy looked confused as Tecna sighed and brought up a holographic map in front of them, the man walking over to point to an island near the top.

"Yeah... England is a country in the north west of Europe."

"I thought you said you were from Britain?"

"England is a part of Great Britain" Bloom said, trailing her finger around the island and its small neighbour before the man shrugged.

"Meh, don't worry about it, even the guys in charge gave up trying to define it..." the dark mage said before all seven of them looked up as the white haired headmistress approached them.

"Ah, there you are..." she started as she looked over the group, eyes resting on the man with some interest, "and I take it you are the visitor that Professor Palladium spoke of?"

"Yup, that's me, though being mistaken for a virus was...original," he replied with a grin as Musa chuckled behind him. Even Miss Faragonda smiled slightly and addressed him with a smile.

"In which case you must have a name."

"Oh yeah," the man slapped himself on the forehead, "I haven't told you who I am yet..." There was a pause as the fairies waited for him to continue, then grinned silently.

"Oh just spill it!" Stella said, exasperated, causing the mage to grin wider before dropping the act.

"DuelMasterP, otherwise known as DMP, or if you're being lazy, D." Miss Faragonda held out her hand to shake as she introduced herself.

"I'm Miss Faragonda, headmistress of Alfea."

"I know," he replied with a raised eyebrow, "Palladium did tell you I studied you from another universe, right?"

"Well, yes," the headmistress admitted, "but I was being polite. Anyway, would you like to continue this discussion in my office?"

"Go on then," DMP replied with a shrug, "I'll just use one of the colas in my backpack..." Once more this caused a confused silence before he sighed and got a can of drink out of his backpack, "yeah, let's just go to your office..."


	5. Who's in what?

Once more I regret to inform the general populous that I do not own Rainbow, who are the true owners of everything Winx. However I am pleased to announce that there's a lot of my characters in here, though quite a chunk of credit has to go to DuelMasterP for the bad guys... 

Enjoy reading and tell me if this chapter's easy enough to understand, there's a lot of explanation in there to get.

Edited!

* * *

The headmistress sat down, fingers thoughtfully steepled with her chin resting on them as she looked across at the mage sitting opposite her, ignoring the various fairies and pixies around the room as she thought.

"So the people who have allied themselves with the witches use light magic for evil?" she asked, light voice questioning but serious.

"Well mostly... You only saw Sebjon and Jebus though... but Digenten tends to stick to Jebus like viruses to windows..."

"Am I correct in thinking that you mean they are close?" Tecna asked, understanding the principle, if not the program involved

DMP nodded, "Yeah. You must have some vaguely useful operating systems if you don't get windows jokes..."

"Er-hem!" the headmistress caught their attention again, "So who precisely ARE these people? And why are they here? More to the point, why are you here?"

The dark mage scratched the back of head through the hoodie as he tried to figure out how to answer, "You know it's around this time I really wish Estantia was here, she's way better at explaining this."

"Just give it a go then," replied Bloom, "Start with who those suited guys were?"

"Both of those guys are part of a group called the First clan, their main objective is... er... well pretty much cause as much chaos as they can and use it to do whatever they happen to be working towards." He shrugged, "Most of the first clan are light mages, that means they are good at computers and technology, like Timmy and Tecna. Thing is that most light types are obsessed with dark being evil, with the witches here they obviously thought you'd be as blind as they are," he explained with a roll of his eyes.

"Well that explains the ranting..." Musa said before asking her own question, "So who was the other guy?"

"Sebjon, even more obsessed than Jebus is," the dark mage replied, "he's a soul mage though, which can be really annoying at times... Then there's Digenten, who was a training program until he kind of escaped. Light type by default as he was virtual originally, erm..." DMP paused, trying to think of anyone else important, "Dirfuhser's Sebjon's wife and the only woman there at the moment. They don't get along too well though, she's a really short dark mage with a really hot temper. Their kids kind of deserted them and joined us," he said with a grin before continuing, "There's a couple of others too, but they're all over the place so we don't have to worry much about them."

Bloom interrupted long enough to pose a question."Wait, who's 'us'?"

"Oh, right," the dark mage hit his head on his hand, "I'm part of another group called the 11th Clan with some of my friends. We're what's called a PKC, er... Peace Keeper Clan," he explained to Tecna, who was busily entering the information into her computer, "what we have to do is clear up the mess in the Multiverse, stop people screwing with timelines, prevent major chaos and catastrophe when we can, that kind of thing." He shrugged and looked over to Faragonda, "So we basically turn up to help out."

"So the only reason you go to other universes is because those guys tamper with the timelines...?" Layla said cautiously, trying to get him to explain properly, though whether she succeeded was debatable.

"Well sometimes I end up in places that just need help without them interfering... Besides, you can go to a universe via a properly targeted portal anyway."

Now _that_ they could understand. "So like a visit?" Flora asked cheerfully.

"Pretty much..." the dark mage replied with a nod, "I could be visiting Viridian City in the morning, and then be relaxing in the Emerald Hill Zone by lunch..."

"Is it me, or was there way too much green in that sentence?" Stella whispered to Flora, getting a glare from the headmistress before falling silent. Faragonda once more fixed her eyes on the strange visitor.

"Do you have an idea to what the 1st clan may be doing in our universe?"

"Knowing them, they asked for help in killing me and my friends when we turned up in return for universal conquest," he replied in the tone that said this was nothing new even as Musa grinned with laughter.

"They must really hate you then."

"Yeah." DMP grinned widely, "We've stopped them from taking over various universes so many times that they've decided to try to get rid of us first."

Before any more questions could be asked a familiar voice came from DMP's watch, completely ignoring what anyone else might have to say. "Incoming transmission from Mireno."

"Who's Mireno?" Tecna asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Our technical genius..." DMP replied as the male voice the dark mage had been talking to when he first entered the training sim spoke in a thoughtful tone.

"That's the first time you've said that..."

"You're not still jealous of Miles are you?" asked DMP with a grin before the neutral tone returned from Mireno.

"I never was in the first place... Anyway, we received this message from the 1st clan just now, I think you'd better watch it."

"How'd they manage to get one through?" asked the dark mage as he pulled back his sleeve and aimed it roughly at the wall.

"Well you told them where the help request website was..." came the sarcastic reply before DMP did a double take. The video then projected onto the wall, showing the image of a mousy haired man with straight hair that looked surprisingly normal as DMP chatted to Mireno.

"We have a website?"

"You made the prototype!" came the reply, making DMP sigh.

"That was just PNGs and a few lines of useless text..."

"Who is he?" Tecna asked curiously with a nod to the still-running message the reipant had been completely ignoring.

"Digenten," DMP said in explanation before Tecna blinked.

"He was virtual?"

"Be quiet and listen," came Mireno's stern voice over the com-watch as he re-started the video.

"I'm sure by now you've guessed that we are up to something more than that diversion we set up for you at..." At this point the man hesitated and looked off-screen to be prompted by a sharp female voice.

"Some school for fairies..."

"...some fairy school. We also know that even now with our victory assured you'll be too stupid to surrender, so we decided to tell you that you have 24 hours left to live." Digenten continued before another voice came from off-screen they recognised as Sebjon's.

"Maybe you should state that it's earth hours..."

"Most of them are from earth so they'll assume that anyway..." Digenten replied, looking away from the camera as the video shut off. As soon as the projection had shut off Mireno spoke to the room.

"What do you make of that?" There was a pause with no answer as the fairies looked at the dark mage, who seemed to have his head lowered in thought, face concentrated. The voice from the com-watch spoke again, with a tone that implied a raised eyebrow the other end. "D?"

"He's playing Tetris again..." the com-watch groaned before a sharp voice snapped across the connection.

"D!!!!"

Suddenly the dark mage's head and other hand jerked up, revealing a small device Bloom recognised as a gameboy in his hand. He blinked a few times as he spoke, seemingly spouting random words, "Huh? Uh... Kuriboh!"

"Were you even watching that?" Mireno asked with a touch of annoyance as DMP thought for a moment.

"Yeah... Something about countdown... I'm so rubbish at the letter rounds..."

All of the room's occupants sighed, it seemed they had gotten to the point where they didn't need to understand him in order to be exasperated.


	6. Observe and act

Guess what? I STILL don't own Winx club! If I end up ever buying it I will tell you, but for the moment it's just the 11th/1st clan and their world that I own with DMP.

Because of the document manager not working it's been slightly longer for me to get this up, but here's one juicy action-based chapter all for you! Now excuse, I need to go and hide before you finish reading this...

Edited!

* * *

"Well there is one up side to all this business with the 1st Clan and people randomly appearing from other universes," Stella said happily as they walked out of their last lesson of the day into the sunshine, "We missed Grizelda's lesson! Now we can just give in the essay tomorrow!" 

"Stella, I cannot believe that you would see an interuniversal problem as a good way to get out of doing a simple essay..." Tecna said with a sigh as they walked towards the gardens as a group.

"Well I think it's a bit weird still," Musa said as they walked, "I mean, other universes? Humans with magic? Multiverse conflicts? It's just too weird to think all of it was happening without us realising."

"Well he said it's his job," Layla replied with a shrug.

"Ignoring what his friend was telling him was rather rude though," one of the pixies floating behind them said, flying in front of them to make her point, ringlets bouncing gently in the wind as the solar fairy looked around them.

"Where is he anyway?"

"He said he'd be around here somewhere..." Flora replied as a familiar rabbit tried to slide out from behind a tree, only for the dark mage to appear and catch him with a grin.

"Found you. You lose," he stated as he let the rabbit go, watching him return to Bloom as he walked over with another of his unrelated comments. "Hide and seek is so much more fun above the ground..."

At this point Tecna tried to start a purposeful discussion, or at least try to figure out some more things, "So do you have some kind of plan to find out what these guys and the witches are up to with the ultimatum?"

"Mindless optimism?" he suggested as some murmured criticism's came from Tune, who was shortly stoppered by Amoré.

"You always say that. Can you just let me talk to them? I've been waiting for intelligent conversation for too long now." the watch on DMP's wrist complained before he took it off and passed it to the digital fairy with a warning.

"Never let an AI program it's own personality... You could end up with this."

"You always say the nicest things..." the AI said with sarcasm layered even more heavily than Mireno as the dark mage waved and started to wander off.

"Well I'm going to see if there's any clues around..."

"I'll translate," the AI said with a sigh, "He's going to go somewhere to play video games until we decide to find him," it explained, "when he said he was a gamer? He meant it."

Almost as soon as DMP had left their sight a familiar male voice of Mireno came through the watch, halting Tecna's investigation of its abilities and its investigation of her technology. "Got some news for you D..."

"He's not here at the moment," Tecna replied as Kiko flew over her head, she still wasn't entirely used to him being able to do that...

"Hiding to play games?" asked the voice on the other end as Tecna nodded, forgetting that she couldn't be seen before the watch replied instead.

"How ever did you guess?"

"Great... I'll send what data we've assembled by running area scans." Mireno replied as a flat holographic map stretched out above the watch, a rotating disc indicating that it was busy.

"How did you manage that?" Musa asked curiously.

"My sensors are sensitive and can provide reliable data for a 3 mile radius... Data received."

As the information appeared on the map Mireno spoke, sounding satisfied "Have fun then. I'll be offline for a few hours. Platinum broke the training room again." With that the link shut off and the fairies looked at the streaks and points on the map that now resembled a 3D version of Alfea.

"1st clan energy signatures recognised here and leading North West." A group of red trails stood out on the diagram as Layla looked at the centre of it, indicating a group of blue dots.

"What does the blue trail mean?"

"Friendly units are represented as blue."

"Makes sense..." Layla replied as she watched the red group move, shortly before another alert came from the AI, who sounded slightly different and more... mechanic.

"Cloaked units detected." A patch of ground was highlighted in green as it moved towards the red trails , then paused as they met up.

"What are they?" Flora asked in a concerned voice as the group turned around and headed to Alfea under the cloak.

"Scanning signatures..." there was a tense pause until the com watch gave its answer, "One match found. Scuro. Member of the 1st clan. Dark mage. Special abilities include cloaking and teleportation."

"Should we warn D?" Flora asked worriedly as the girls ran to the courtyard, only to find no-one there. Tecna looked at the watch attached to her wrist with a frown.

"Was your data accurate?"

"100 percent," it replied as Musa looked around at the milling students, "Even if the EVA program DMP installed made it sound weird..."

"Then where are they?" she asked with a questioning look as a cold and slightly dangerous voice none of them recognised came out of the air behind the group, causing them to spin round.

"Did you mean us?" the voice came from a man they'd never seen with black hair who somehow reminded them of Riven, though his hair was going in a sane direction and at a normal length. The look on his face wasn't unlike Riven's either... when he'd been working for the witches. Speaking of which Stormy was the only one of them there, though Sebjon was at his other side.

"Be warned. Danger of bipolar magic."

"I have no idea what that meant but these jerks are going to get it!" Stella said angrily as she started to shine, transforming to her fairy form like the others were.

This simply got a hunter's smile from the witch. "Time to squash some fairies..." However before the attack could begin Sebjon caught Stormy's arm, "You have your mission. We'll take care of these wimps..."

"Fine!" she growled before storming off inside, sparks of lightning flying off her hair as the other two turned to smile at the fairies, the dark mage looking them up and down as if making a bet.

"Soooo, how quickly shall we beat these newbies?" he commented almost as idly as D did over visiting other universes.

Stella looked annoyed and simply let loose a blast of energy, slamming straight into the dark shield that appeared before Sebjon smirked, "This is going to be too easy. We soul mages expect stronger opponents than this..."

"I wouldn't count on it!" Stella yelled as she shot over to Bloom, pooling their power to launch the familiar molten bomb, only to find a column of flame from the dark mage forcing it back towards them, making the pair scatter as Sebjon smirked, moving his hands in a complicated pattern to form a glowing green symbol that steadily sent out a gas. With a frown Tecna released her power, surrounding the gas with a grid shield before it vanished, allowing the fairy only a moment to smile before a blast of pure electricity shot out of nowhere to strike her side, shorting out her magic as Musa dived to catch her, narrowly avoiding the first green bolt headed her way only to slam into the second.

Bloom's eyes glittered angrily as Musa sprawled next to Tecna, hands glowing with fire as the two mages focussed on her. Suddenly the Dark mage slammed sideways into Sebjon, both looking over to the seething tidal fairy, hands outstretched from the water cannon she had just fired as Flora's vines used the water to strengthen their hold on the mages.

"Got them!" Layla said triumphantly before she saw the grins on the pair's faces, vines smouldering away on one side while the vines on the other shot towards Layla, wrapping her tightly under Sebjon's influence as a blast of fire barely missed Flora, curving under Bloom's control to torch the ends of the plants that bound Layla.

Scuro shot upwards and away from the column of fire chasing him and sped towards Stella, forcing Bloom to keep the fire away in order not to hurt her friend, instead sending it flying angrily at Sebjon, who just ran out the way to get it to hit a wall. In the mean time the soul mage had charged up his light spell again, shooting it at Layla who was thrown backwards as Tecna sat up a little dizzily.

There was another calm(ish) moment as Layla stood up and brushed herself off, keeping an eye on the light mage as Tecna leant over Musa, who was rubbing her legs and wincing. "Anyone got a plan?" came the water fairy's voice through the shouts from Stella above her.

"My hair's a mess! They are so going to pay for that!" Stella fumed as a burst of light shot at Scuro, just missing as Sebjon chuckled mockingly.

"You've done a splendid job of it so far..."

"No, her hair's always as ugly as that," came a sharp retort as Stormy left the building and stood next to Sebjon and Stella flushed furiously, yelling something incomprehensible as Sebjon spoke to the witch.

"You finished ahead of schedule. I guess it's only fair to let you play..."

"I was hoping you'd say that," the witch replied with a grin as she concentrated, winds pulling in around her to spin in her hands before her eyes snapped open and she moved, whirlwind falling apart as something small and sharp flew past her cheek in a crackle of electricity and a sheath of flame.

In the doorway stood the friendly dark mage, idly tossing another projectile in his hand as he looked between the three enemies, seemingly ignoring the fairies on the other side. For once the boy was not laughing, or even had a humourous look as he commented on the group with something like disappointment. "A remote mine... Either you think my observation skills are as bad as my memory or you guys are really sloppy today..."

"You'd like to think that wouldn't you?" Sebjon snarled before opening his palm, a flurry of ice flying at the dark mage as he sped out the way, slamming a kick into Scuro's side before pulling up a dark shield against the retaliation of pure dark magic. Suddenly it was obvious he was just battling as he went to join the Winx club girls, looking down at Musa before he and Tecna lifted her to her feet, using Tecna for support as her legs wobbled. "What did he hit you with?" he asked, looking at her reactions.

"Numbing of some sort, I can't feel my legs," Musa replied as her wings fluttered and she rose to the air, "I really hope I get the feeling back before I have to land..."

"I always wondered why Estantia kept trying to teach me healing magic," DMP mused as the AI's voice retorted sharply.

"You're supposed to make that joke when you actually bothered to learn it..."

"Who cares?" DMP replied as he rolled, missing a bright blue beam from Scuro that froze the bush behind him solid. "Oh come on even you can do better than his..." he grumbled as a fireball emerged from his hand to slam into Sebjon's hastily conjured light shield that barely managed to survive the attack. With a flash of a smile Scuro vanished, all of the fairies looking to Tecna as she brought up the map, watching the loading symbol intently as the evil dark mage appeared behind DMP, raising his blade with a grin as Stella yelled in panic.

Time seemed to slow down as Bloom shot forwards, a stream of fire about to leave her hands as something slammed into the fairy's side, sending her spinning away from her newest friend. At the shout DMP spun, backpack lifting slightly off his body with the movement as he looked up, seeming to freeze at the sight of Scuro before dropping into a crouch, raising his hand in a last pathetic defence against the descending blade.


	7. Sorting the specialists from the fangirl

Do I own Winx? Do I own the other things I reference to in this? Nope, if I did I wouldn't be a penniless student, and that's just breaking the rules of life...

Looks at previous sentence I've been chatting to D way too much... Anyway, here's the story, and sorry for taking so long to resolve the cliffhanger, for some reason the exams that start next week are higher priority .

Edited!

* * *

_Time seemed to slow down as Bloom shot forwards, a stream of fire about to leave her hands as something slammed into the fairy's side, sending her spinning away from her newest friend. At the shout DMP spun, backpack lifting slightly off his body with the movement as he looked up, seeming to freeze at the sight of Scuro before dropping into a crouch, raising his hand in a last pathetic defence against the descending blade._

With a jarring scrape the blade halted, the world snapping back to a normal rate of time as DMP grinned upwards at a shocked Scuro for a split second through the prongs of a dagger-like trident that held the sword where it was. Then there was a flurry of movement, sword spinning away sideways as the hand DMP had on the floor took his weight, letting him swing round to kick Scuro's legs out from under him before flipping back upright.

"Training against a dancer can be helpful," the friendly mage replied, "they always manage to pull a trick like that."

"Fine," Stormy shouted as her hands rose to the sky, "Let's see how you handle this!" Her power drew in dark clouds that poured with rain and glowed ominously, promising the blasts of energy that she was known for. Even though Bloom was slumped against a tree she had a hard time not to laugh when Stormy's face contorted at the mage's casual reply.

"Is that it, or is something vaguely interesting going to happen?"

"What?!?!"

"I guess not..." He replied as he threw himself once more into a roll, the lightning blast from the clouds striking the place where he had been standing before kicking off the ground, shooting upwards as his fist forced the space in it front of it to erupt into flame. After slamming into the weather witch before he dropped neatly back to the ground, eyes on Sebjon and Scuro, who had returned to stand next to the soul mage. Apparently the fact all five fairies that could attack had been surrounding his last position had put him off the idea of staying there, showing by the various scorch marks on his clothes.

"Enough of this pointless fight," Sebjon stated as DMP straightened, movements wary as he faced the members of the first clan.

"Seriously... What is up with you guys today?" he asked with a puzzled look as Sebjon raised his hand to open a portal, which Scuro virtually fell into. Sebjon walked over to grab a semi-conscious Stormy to the portal, throwing her in as DMP spoke, "Not that running away isn't normal for you guys but still..."

That comment caused the soul mage to swing round with a furious glare, vines shooting out of nowhere to imprison the sarcastic boy in a cocoon before he smirked and turned back to the portal.

"I'm starting to see why he doesn't like plants so much..." Flora admitted as Sebjon paused, head turned slightly as he made a final comment.

"Normally the vines would just drain his energy and magic while being resistant to fire, but this is my latest version. If he tries to break out, then the vines will release a powerful toxin." The mage smirked as he stepped into the portal and closed it, leaving the fairies and cocoon alone.

Almost immediately the voice of the com-watch came through "We don't have long to get him out of there then..." As one the fairies turned to the gentle brown haired fairy, who walked up to the cocoon thoughtfully and laid her hands on it. After a moment Musa sank down to the ground and transformed back, Stella supporting her before Musa spoke.

"So what do you think Flo?"

"I haven't seen this species before," Flora said uncertainly, attention totally on the vines in front of her, "I could try to connect with it..."

"That could work. It sounds way quicker than my open a portal idea..." DMP replied as he walked up next to Tecna and retrieved the com watch, fastening it to his wrist as Flora took her hands off the vines and turned to stare at the dark mage.

"Yeah, sounds great!" Stella replied with a nod before looking at Flora, "What are you waiting for?" she asked, looking around at the group as the fairies burst out laughing and DMP winced.

"Yup, definitely the 4kids version..." he sighed before straightening up to look at Bloom and Musa "You guys okay?" At the hint they might not be ready to fight both fairies straightened indignantly, though Musa with a little more difficulty despite the warmth seeping into her legs from Stella's staff.

"We could take on those witches any time we wanted!" Musa practically spat in disgust before DMP grinned.

"What's the plan then?"

The entire group jumped as Faragonda spoke behind them, having either appeared out of nowhere or been there the entire time without anyone noticing, "Since you have the ability to track them, I've arranged for the specialists to join you."

Needless to say this sent all of the girls into high spirits, Stella frantically shooting back to her room to change as the others just hung around, occasionally trying to help Musa warm her legs up even though she was stubbornly insisting she was fine and that she WANTED to sit on the floor thank you very much.

Once the ship landed Riven had to sidestep quickly as the solar fairy practically threw herself at Brandon, causing the brunette to carefully manoeuvre his girlfriend off the ramp so that the other guys could also leave the ship. Riven instead looked at Musa's sitting position and raised an eyebrow as Sky wandered over to DMP and Bloom.

"So you must be the new guy," he said with a smile, as he extended a hand, which DMP accepted, "apparently I don't need to introduce myself either."

"Yup, just call me DMP or D."

"He's from earth too apparently," Bloom supplied with a smile as the dark mage next to her grinned and replied with the 'squee' expression.

"From sunny England." At this point the brown-haired squire was finally released from the arms of his girlfriend and the pair walked over to join the discussion with the others apart from Tecna (with Timmy inside the ship), Riven and Musa, who were by now having a furious argument about her not being fit to come on the mission but still carrying her onboard where it was warmer despite the musical fairy's protests.

After watching that entertaining spectacle Brandon turned to DMP with interest, "Do you only use magic then or..."

"Well I studied Kung Fu, and mixed in techniques from other styles..." He explained, and would have said more if a friendly spiky haired head looked out the ship's door.

"Are we going or what?"


	8. Aren't caves meant to to be dark?

Hiya guys, once more I don't own Winx, but if you've got this far in the story you really should know that by now...

Anyway, chaos going on with exams right now but you're still getting a chapter on DMP's insistence, so here it is, the edited chapter 8!

* * *

Miss. Faragonda waved briefly as the ship hovered and rose, turning to face away from the school. However virtually as soon as the ship tried to move it ground to a halt, throwing the inhabitants to the floor. There was a murmured groan from the floor as Bloom hastily crawled off Sky's back, mumbling an apology hurriedly as she helped him to his feet. Tecna moved to stand next to Timmy, looking out at the smoothly shiny kind of shield they were getting used to.

"They've trapped us inside," the digital fairy told them as she looked outside, "I don't think we can break through it."

"Smegheads," DMP commented as he looked down to his wrist, probably out of habit, "Can you get a Light portal for us?"

"I knew you were going to ask that..." the voice replied in a weary tone as a spiralling disc of pale blue appeared next to the ship. They watched as the spiralling slowed to a gentle rotation and the inside cleared away to reveal a short tunnel and an exit that opened onto forest, not much different from the view they would have had normally apart from the lake.

"The sensors are showing some unstable energy in that thing..." Timmy said, frowning slightly as he looked at it, "Are you sure it's safe to take the ship in it?"

"If you'd rather go with the unpredictable dark portal, just let me know..." the dark mage said with a helping of sarcasm, drawing a chuckle from Musa and Bloom before the hero sighed and turned the ship, shooting into the portal and out the other side in something strangely like a blink despite the apparent depth.

"So why did you ask your watch for a portal?" asked the hero who currently seemed to be serving as Stella's seat. The dark mage shrugged as he replied to Brandon's question.

"The only light spell I know is Piercing Light, and I only use that as a desperation against other dark siders..."

"Huh?"

"He uses dark magic... But he's good..." Stella explained with a shrug, showing that she knew how strange it sounded. Her boyfriend blinked twice before speaking in a semi-surprised voice.

"Oh... Well that's new..."

Once more the dark mage seemed to be following his own chain of thought, completely oblivious to what others may be saying, "I considered learning light-speed attack, but it's just way too slow..."

"What's wrong with light?" came the rather touchy comment from Stella as she glared at him. He looked at her completely unfazed.

"Well dark-speed is much faster,"

"Oh really?" Now all of the fairies around could tell Stella was seething, though the dark mage didn't seem to realise how annoyed the solar fairy was becoming.

"Yeah... We're not exactly sure what it is yet though... The record is currently..."

"Approximately twenty three point two times the speed of light in a vacuum," the com watch supplied, making the dark mage grin.

"What she said." At this reaction Stella sulked, and remained that way for most of the trip. Though she was more surprised when they landed some way from their destination.

"This is the closest I can get guys," Timmy said, "From here on in the forest's virtually solid, it must be millennia old it's so thick.

"Oh yes, knowing how old the trees are really makes me feel more comfortable when walking into pitch darkness!" Stella protested as Brandon led her into the forest, light cut off sharply as they entered the dark twilight.

"Don't be silly Stella," Flora said gently, "it's just that the light is mostly used by the trees, so you only get faint dappled light." Flora pointed to where a few shafts fell onto a particularly large tree root before jumping onto it and leaning peacefully against the tree, hair coiling gently as she closed her eyes.

"Ok team, let's keep together..." Prince Sky said as he passed her, apparently awakening the nature fairy from the daze she had fallen into by the jolt, unintentionally banging her head against Helia's as she straightened. The artist simply smiled and lifted her off the tree root before jumping down himself.

It was clear that Stella was still on edge, drawing closer to Brandon and sliding an arm around his, looking around nervously as he smiled down at her. Most of the others were concentrating on not tripping over roots and branches, but the Dark mage seemed completely normal, blending almost entirely into the shadows as he walked.

"It's way too bright in here isn't it?"

"Are you crazy? It's way too dark!" Stella said, eyes only just managing to distinguish his face from the shadows, sounding mildly annoyed that he was so comfortable here and turned it into a joke! He turned EVERYTHING into a joke!

"Try night vision goggles..."

Stella ignored that really annoying neutral tone this time and instead looked over to see something welcoming, "Hey! Light! from that cave!"

"Good one Stella!" Sky said as the group shot towards it, though the dark mage held back with a slight 'err..'

"Has everyone forgotten that caves are supposed to be dark?" he said, emerging into the light to look around at the fairies and heroes.

"Not everyone can see in the dark..." Timmy replied as he scanned the area for any dangers.

"It's not that hard... Even my crazy sister can do it," DMP retorted as he started to walk in, still a little wary. When the tunnel opened out into a square room with computers placed around the walls he stopped, most of the others walking past before noticing and turning to face him.

"Is it just me or does this entire place scream "obvious trap"??" he asked while glancing around at the gaps between computers as if expecting an attack. To be fair, he was right about it being a trap...

Suddenly the people that had walked further into the room vanished downwards into the blackness beyond the trapdoor that had opened beneath them. As quickly as it opened it shut, cutting off the lights that implied the fairies were trying to transform and fly out. Out of the group that had entered the room now only DMP, Bloom, Musa, Flora, Sky and Timmy remained above the trapdoor, staring silently at the floor before Timmy sighed and rubbed his forehead.

"You just had to say it didn't you?"


	9. Split in two

Winx is not mine, if it were this this would be a mini-series at any rate...Anyway, just for a recap, DMP, Musa, Timmy, Sky, Flora and Bloom are above the trapdoor, Stella, Brandon, Riven (thanks for catching the spelling), Helia, Layla and Tecna fell through the trapdoor.

Edit: Stupid dividers... thanks for catching it Faerun!

* * *

Beneath them the three fairies had stopped trying to pummel the ceiling, letting themselves land and transform back into humans, trying to get a better look at the room, which Tecna was already scanning.

"Where are we?" Layla asked the digital fairy, who replied absent-mindedly.

"We appear to have fallen into a lower chamber..."

"Allow me to shed some light on this!" Stella said with a smile at the awful pun before she raised her sceptre, light blossoming from it to reveal a plainly cut room, though regular, unlike a cavern that would be expected from a cave.

"Well judging by the way you three couldn't crack it I guess the way back up is sealed," Rivon said, looking around at the walls of their prison, "We're going to have to find another path out."

"Will this door do?" asked Brandon, opening the only door with a bow for Stella as she passed through, shutting the door carefully out of habit when he left the room. After a minute or two their group came to a halt, all looking at the carefully polished staircase in front of them.

"A staircase?" the pacifist mused thoughtfully, tapping his fingers against his leg.

"Seems a little too convenient," Rivon agreed, eyeing the stairs with distrust before the light started to move.

"Stop worrying... It's not like there's another route." Stella said before breezing into a lit room, extinguishing her sceptre as the group fanned out, facing the three figures waiting inside.

"It's not going to be any fun if they're not all here!" the frizzy-haired witch complained to her companions before their leader silenced them with a dismissive flick.

"Quit your wining. These new guys said they've studied the pixie's attack patterns..."

"We attack in a pattern?" Stella asked, "Wow!"

"I know, we couldn't believe it either," Darcy drawled, "Which is why I still don't trust those guys."

Stella clapped at this, "Oh well done, you finally worked that out after every bad guy you side with betrays you?"

"Ok that does it, let's get this party started!" yelled Stormy as she unleashed a blinding lightning bolt.

* * *

In the room with all the computers the blonde prince scratched the back of his neck thoughtfully, "We'd better head on if we're going to stand a chance of finding them."

"Well that door's the only other way out of here..." Musa pointed out with a nod to the single door in the opposite wall.

"Well I guess that made it easy..." murmured Timmy as the group walked over to the door. Bloom looked worriedly at the floor and bit her lip before a gentle hand rested on her shoulder.

"They'll be okay Bloom," the fire fairy looked at Flora, who smiled, "they're strong enough to look after themselves. Now smile,"

"But.."

"She's right," Sky replied, walking up next to her with a smile, "right now we have to trust them and do our best for them, so wear one of those smiles we all love." At this Bloom did smile and hug her boyfriend, though behind her DMP just shook his head slightly.

"Lightsiders are crazy..." he muttered under his breath as he followed them through into the next room, finding it was almost identical to the one that they had just left without computers. However in this one the door slammed shut behind DMP, causing the entire group to turn and see the door fade to become part of the wall. DMP immediately turned to face the others with his hand to his waist where a sword would be. "A fiver says a bunch of mechs appear in the next five seconds..."

"Is that a good thing?" Timmy asked as several robots that seemed like bulky humanoid without heads appeared in a glow of green-blue light and started to charge up the lasers on their arms, parts rotating faster to build up energy.

"Pity... I was out by a second..." DMP commented as he drew his blade, apparently from his shoulder, and sprinted forwards, shortly followed by Sky as the fairies transformed. The two swordsmen ran side by side before nodding to each other, splitting to the side as lasers shot through the space they'd been.

"Hey watch it!" Musa yelled as she jumped, lasers just missing her feet before forming a pulsing orb in her hand, "time to see if you can face the music!" Her hand shoved forwards palm out, shooting the pulsing orb at one mech, forming a slight dent in the armour that didn't seem to deter it at all. The glowing bolt that lodged into the laser it was charging had much more effect, causing Timmy to grin as the glow faded.

It was just a pity they had flamethrowers too.

Bloom dove directly into the path of the flame with hands outstretched, flight curving slightly upwards to avoid the floor as she forced the fire round at another mech, causing the metal skin to bubble.

As Bloom rested for a moment Sky seemed to gain ferocity, leaping into the air to give one of the leading mechs a horizontal slash across the body that exposed surprisingly few wires. On the next mech over DMP had discovered much the same thing.

"Jebus finally put the essential bits in a safe place!" the dark mage yelled as he circled, "Take out the weapons first!"

"Wouldn't cutting the legs off make more sense?" Timmy shouted as another well placed shot took out a laser fractionally before the emerging flamethrower was blown up by a fireball.

"Leave the movement problem to me," the nature fairy said calmly from her place behind Musa, stretching out her hands to the floor. With a murmur and a frown of concentration a series of thick vines sprouted around the two undamaged robots and squeezed them tightly, causing the metal to crumple slightly. In a flash DMP shot across and jumped, dark blade taking out the emerging flamethrowers before the vines could be torched. He also sent a bolt of lightning into the holes he had unintentionally caused in doing so, making the robots shudder and collapse before the dark mage ran out along the still growing vines to the next target, the mech with a melted shoulder.

Meanwhile Sky's blade was weaving a deadly pattern as he fought off the mechs he and DMP had slashed. "Move!" yelled a male voice and he instantly complied, leaping up to the top ridge of the robot as a laser blast shot into the barrel-chest.

"Well if they're going to fire they should at least hit something," Timmy said with a grin as he continued to run, acting as a lure for the robot with one functioning laser, though the fireball to its other arm sorted that problem out. That allowed the musical fairy to swoop from behind and slam her hand into the top of it, the resulting shockwaves knocking wires out of place and causing it to fall forwards as she lifted off its back.

"Three down, four to go!" Musa said with a cheer before a grinning DMP flashed past.

"Four, I just took out another." he said as a kick off the wall slammed him into the back of a fifth, letting the blade stay embedded as it shuddered and died, the dark mage retrieving the weapon in time to dodge a swing from the one he had slashed earlier. "Make that five."

Now it was Sky's turn to grin, a vertical slash of his blade slicing through the centre of the mech he stood on before jumping backwards, using the jump to shove the mech forwards into its counterpart. With a smile Bloom rose behind the two in a pile as vines snaked over the struggling robots, unleashing a concentrated beam of fire into the one on top, forcing it to melt and drip onto the one beneath, which also sizzled under the fire and stopped moving.

For a moment the group relaxed, sinking to the floor in the case of the fairies and Timmy while DMP and Sky leant against the nearest wall. After a minute or two Sky pushed himself off the wall and looked at the others. "Looks like we have two possible routes now."

"We'll have to pick one then. We don't want to split up again," Bloom replied, standing and walking over to Sky to lean against him. The dark mage across the room looked up at the couple before replying.

"Why not? I figure we can all handle ourselves."

"It does increase our chances of finding the others," Timmy pointed out, "Though it does mean there's a bigger chance of defeat."

"Okay then," Bloom looked around at the group, "Sky, Flora and me will check out this way." She straightened up with a smile as the other fairy walked across to join them.

"Good plan..." Timmy replied as he, DMP and Musa walked through the other door with a wave.


	10. You do NOT annoy the mage

Heya, I still don't own Winx club, If I ever get the deeds I'll be sure to scan them in and put them on here... Speaking of which you might get a pic of DMP soon, once the eye colour's been settled.

Please note. If someone has a high ranking position they normally have the power to back it up.

Edit: I hate it when dividers in the document vanish!

* * *

Green strings whipped through the air to fasten around a slim ankle, a yank from Helia bringing Darcy down to the floor where Riven and Brandon immediately spurted towards her. With a scowl Darcy clapped her hands together, pulling them apart sharply as her image spread out to either side.

"Now can you guess the right Darcy to attack?" she asked teasingly before Riven swiped, slicing off a lock of Darcy's long hair. "How...?"

"You still have laser strings around your ankle," he said frankly before lunging again, only to be swept off his feet as all the Darcy copies rotated, a myriad of scowling faces pulling the long-haired hero round in dizzying circles. Brandon too was tripped by the laser strings still attached to the real Darcy, though Helia retracted them sharply and swayed dizzily, only to be knocked off his feet by a blast from Darcy.

"Pathetic, I thought you were meant to be heroes, not zeros," Darcy said scornfully as she rose to the air.

"NO-ONE insults my boyfriend!" Stella yelled, shooting downwards towards Brandon before a lightning blast struck her side, sending her flying.

"Turning your back on an enemy is a bad idea," Stormy taunted before being knocked forwards with a shriek.

"Letting the enemy get behind you is an even greater tactical error," Tecna commented as she brought up a shield to intercept the counter-attack from Stormy, "being predictable doesn't aid you either."

Icy smirked as she moved her hands, shards of sharp ice flying towards the solar fairy and her boyfriend before Riven shouted a single word, "Fly!" Without hesitation Stella grabbed Brandon and shot upwards, setting the hero back on his feet before turning to face Icy and building up a ball of light, throwing it at the witch who moved sideways to dodge it, instead flying straight into the torrent of water Layla fired.

"Witches! Let's see if those instructions they gave us really work!" Icy yelled before all three darted to the centre, looking inwards as power gathered around them. "Firstly a physical attack," Icy said as lightning flashed, forcing Riven to drop the sword before Stormy's hand snapped out to send a pulse at the solar fairy.

"Next Stella..."

"Covered that."

"Tecna and Layla together, fly downwards..." The Trix shot down and raised their hands, sending a wave of power at the two fairies, who slammed into the wall behind them once their own attacks missed. With another pulse of energy the Trix split, each with their own tactics.

"_Darcy," Sebjon said, "you're the obvious person to take care of the heroes due to physical attacks as they can only try to hit one or two copies at a time."_ Well It had certainly worked the last time she tried it, Helia was still slumped in the way and Riven was definitely getting angry enough to make rash decisions. Darcy smirked and let off a blast at the hero, who easily dodged out of the way, just as she intended him to, to give him a false sense of confidence of course...

Meanwhile the memory of Sebjon's words rang in Stormy and Icy's heads, _"The fairies will split into two groups and swap between counterattack and single opponent, Icy will be singled out as the most deadly single, so distract them and keep them away from Darcy. Stormy, you are better at counterattack, so stop any fairies trying to attack Darcy or Icy from long range. Working so flawlessly together will make them think you know how they attack and lose confidence, mind games are useful are they not?" _

The tactics worked scarily well, the witches were grudgingly impressed as the heroes and fairies fell one by one. "How did these pathetic fairies ever defeat us?" Storm asked scornfully as she forced Layla to call off an attack on Icy or be fried.

"Dumb luck," Icy replied as the flew upwards, allowing Stella's attack to miss before clogging the air between them with snow that piled on the Solar fairy, causing her to slowly sink to the floor shivering. It was the work of a moment to freeze her to the floor properly.

"I suppose we do get to beat the others after these losers, so that'll make up for this really dull fight..." Stormy muttered before idly shorting out Tecna from behind, causing the digital fairy to gasp in pain and sink to the floor, though she tried to struggle to her feet again.

The reply came in a drawl from beneath them as Darcy's wave attack hit, causing Riven to stumble before a solid blast sent him spinning into the wall where Brandon was already unconscious. "Are you done whining Stormy?"

"I'll finish them with Ice Coffin so we can find an interesting fight!" As the only moving one in the room Layla naturally shot away as fast as she could, only to find the witches pinning her in a corner. With a sinister grin Icy raised her hands, bringing them down sharply towards the tidal fairy, who threw up a feeble shield that gave way under the attack, letting the ice spell shoot towards her with only a raised arm for defence.

Layla's eyes opened again when a wave of heat shot past her instead of cold, looking up just in time to see a huge fireball absorb the ice spell, shortly before a heated voice came from a doorway.

"The interesting fight just found you instead," Bloom's eyes lit with anger as she hovered across from the ice witch, fire rippling around her wings as she saw her friends scattered across the room, most unconscious.

"I was wondering where you were..." Icy commented with a smirk much like Stormy and Darcy were directing at the fairy. As the insults started to fly Flora shot across to Helia and carefully checked him over before looking up at the witches with something disturbingly like anger in her own eyes. Sky's reaction was almost instinctive, drawing his sword before going over to Layla and getting her into a better position while the witches were distracted.

"Hey guys... Where are the others?" Layla asked quietly as they joined Helia and Flora, who answered Layla's question.

"They're checking another path. It's a real maze in this place..."

"This is boring," Stormy muttered, drawing power to her hands, "it's time we got to really fighting!"

"For once, I agree!" Bloom yelled as she threw her arms out, accompanied by waves of fire.

* * *

The other group were walking along a long lit tunnel, implying this was the inhabited part of the cave, though the light did throw the walls into sharp relief with the indents and slashes that nearly formed symbols if you glanced, but only truly revealed their forms when you shielded them from the light such as Musa was doing. "What's with the weird symbols on the walls?"

After a quick look DMP spoke, "Looks like standard galactic alphabet..."

"I've never heard of that, where's it from?" Timmy asked curiously, not even bothering to consult his database, most of the things DMP mentioned weren't on it anyway. His guess was proven right when the dark mage replied.

"A game back home... I can't remember any of it though..." There was a pregnant pause as he looked at the wall, then at his wrist.

"...so you want me to translate?" the watch said, realising that she had just been given a hint.

"If it says something useful..." came the neutral reply as he lifted his wrist.

"Scanning..." Timmy looked at it expectantly, noting the fact she sounded a bit different to normal when she had instructions like this. "Translated... "Wave generator room ahead." "

"You mean like sound wave?" Musa said, confused.

"Only one way to find out," came the reply before DMP continued to walk, leading them into an open room much like the one they had fought the mech's in. Squarely in the centre of the room was a large machine with several lights that blinked on and off as they walked up to it.

The dark mage was the first to reach it, eyes flicking up to the sign before shaking his head, disappointed. "The mind control device... And in a hollowed out mountain too... This is just so original..." his voice practically dripped with sarcasm before Timmy replied, causing the mage to look at him sideways.

"Mind control? Is that really possible?"

"You're dating a fairy and you ask if brainwashing is possible?" DMP replied with a raised eyebrow, causing Musa to chuckle,

"He has a point Timmy..."

"Booya! That makes the score DMP 3, Estantia..." he paused, silently trying to work it out before shrugging, "Ok... I lost count at a googoltriplex..."

"Huh?"

"The googol, googolplex and so on, are numbers so large that they are simply imaginary," Timmy reeled off in response to Musa with no effort at all.

"Okay..."

"And if you spell it wrong, you get a search engine..." the hooded mage replied with a grin that could only be described as a 'squee' expression plastered across his face. There was another pause before the fairy decided they should actually do something.

"Should we just break this thing then?"

"Sounds like fun..." the dark mage replied normally as Timmy crossed to the keyboard attached to the device.

"I'll just shut this thing down..." At the fifth smash he finally looked up to see both of the others attacking the device and appearing to have a lot of fun doing so. The technical expert pushed up his glasses with a resigned sigh, "or we could just blow it up..."

He simply stood back and watched as the device was eventually reduced to scrap metal, most of which was steaming from the fire DMP had thrown. When they had finished and nodded to each other over a job done Timmy pushed himself off the wall and walked across to them. "We'd better rejoin the others now."

DMP immediately pointed at a tunnel to their right, causing the other two to stare at him and blink. "That way."

"What makes you say that?"

"That digital map on the wall..."

"Let's go then," replied Musa, leading the way to the tunnel, Timmy shortly behind her. The dark mage, however was looking thoughtfully at a wall, or more accurately in the general direction of the wall as he thought.

"Coming?" Timmy's voice literally seemed to jerk DMP out of his thoughts, making the dark mage blink and turn before nodding and catching up to them as they walked through the tunnel to where their friends were.

Or rather, where most of their friends were lying on the floor unconscious. In fact the only positive side to this situation was the crumpled forms of two witches that were also out cold and that Bloom was giving Icy a tough time. Timmy immediately scanned the room, starting towards the form lying crumpled against the wall, "Tecna!"

The musical fairy stared around at all of their friends in mild shock, "What happened?" DMP silently turned, eyes narrowing at the sight of the figures that had just emerged from the shadows.

"They just got beaten..." commented the mage with smooth blonde hair as he smirked at the group.

The smirk grew as DMP's fists clenched, head bowed slightly with closed his eyes, as if fighting not to strangle the mage. Just how Sebjon liked his victims... hopeless and frustrated. However his smirk froze as he felt the air change around the figure, who now seemed a lot more dangerous than normal.

As the darkness continued to condense around the man to form a visible aura the dark mage spoke, causing the fairies near him to move away slightly at his tone in surprise and something that was almost fear. Gone was the light joking voice, replaced by the dangerously low tone that told all of the 1st Clan that they had just stepped over the line. "Now you're annoying me."

Suddenly there was a series of explosions from around the room, monitors and lights shattering in a flash as DMP's eyes snapped open, fixed on Sebjon with hatred as lightning streamed from the computers to crackle round his hands in the descending darkness, kept only at bay by lightning and the fire rippling around the flame fairy.

"Let's go."


	11. Fight in the cave

Yay! After some editing of previous chapters number 11 is finally here. The other reason it took so long is because I was working on a picture for some of the new characters. You can find it at http://elftown.lysator.liu.se/stuff/est-d-rm11.jpg .

Who's the girl? Ah you'll have to wait and see...

Guess what, I don't own Winx club...

* * *

There was a grin from somewhere in the darkness, "Darkness may power you up, but you forget..." two shapes blurred, forming two crackling orbs that shot at DMP, "two of us are dark too." 

"You're forgetting me," Bloom said, throwing her hands out to send a wave of fire towards the enemies, illuminating the room for long enough to show Timmy creeping across it to retrieve his friends while both sides were occupied. However it also showed that Scuro and Dirfuhser were standing together, forming a net of darkness between them before looking up at the light.

When neither blinked at the flames Bloom's eyes narrowed, "D?"

"Dark types are basically immune to fire, or didn't you know that?" sneered the short woman before turning her head to glare at the holes in her tight jacket, "However you DID scorch my clothes, so I do not appreciate it."

"Sebjon might though..." Scuro grinned as he looked over at the soul mage, quickly having to dive out the way as a bolt of green shot at him, "Hey! We have other people to fight!"

"Pay attention," came another voice from behind him before a blast connected with the man's back, sending Scuro crashing into his team-mate before DMP effectively vanished.

"He's using dark-" Jebus started before clapping his hands over his ears in pain, looking around for the source of the sound he realised a fairy was floating above him with a grin almost worthy of Sebjon. With a scowl Jebus tried to escape the noise, failing as she simply turned to follow him. In a moment he changed direction, this time running with purpose towards Bloom, leaving Musa's side wide open to attack from the rest of the room, such as the pulsating green light that formed around Sebjon's hands and lanced towards her. She released the spell just in time to dive, but her foot still got caught by it, making her wince with pain.

However that wince was nothing to the scream of Layla as Digenten's attack connected, leaving her unconscious in a moment before a spinning form appeared from nowhere to slam into the figure. There was a brief glow as the energy transferred itself to Digenten then another blur of movement as the figure shot into the wall at a frightening speed. He slid down it before breaking into pixels with a groan and filtering into the computer.

"One down, not that many to go," came DMP's voice as he appeared in a blur around Dirfuhser, the woman shrieking as she raised a feeble shield.

"You idiot! That elemental blast was banned!"

"I'm not distorting time you idiot," came the reply so unlike DMP's normal tone it was barely recognisable, "I'm just using darkspeed, like I'm going to try and kill myself."

Suddenly there was a noise of recognition before Sebjon's voice rang out, "We're not dealing with DMP!"

"What?" Musa looked at the crumpled female mage and the shadow standing over her with crackling darkness around it.

"Too right you're not," came the blunt reply before it faded to a more sadistic tone, "you make it sound like you didn't_ want_ a fun fight..."

"I don't care if he's a more dangerous opponent now, it's Bloom I'm concerned with!" Icy's voice was, as usual, as cold as the spell she used, forming ice around Bloom's legs before the heated flame of anger formed, shattering the ice before roaring forward to slam the witch. The counter attack came with a scowl, a pure beam of ice that shot from Icy's spread palm as a torrent of fire flew from Blooms', both meeting with a crash, ice climbing around fire even as it was melted.

With a sharp movement Icy broke off the stalemate and rose, slamming a series of hard hailstones into the fire fairy's body, the ginger hair taking the brunt of the attack before a particularly large one slammed into her wing, causing them to fold and the fire fairy to plummet. Icy started to laugh as Bloom's body became encased in fire, making her appear a living pyre as she fell in defeat.

Suddenly Bloom's eyes snapped open, wings sending her shooting upwards even faster than she had accelerated downwards, too fast for Icy to do anything but blink before the pair were encased in a flaming explosion that sent them flying into opposite walls. Bloom transformed back to her normal self as she fell to land on top of Sky and Tecna, just part of the clump of unconscious friends Timmy had moved out of harm's way.

Then the entire room started to shake with a regular rumble, sending Jebus and Timmy tumbling to the floor, though Sebjon and Scuro caught themselves before they fell to glare at the kneeling fairy with both hands pressed to the floor and a large grin on her face. The dark mage of the first clan still standing scowled and vanished as DMP appeared in his place, the latter shooting off again as Scuro appeared in the air behind Musa, delivering a blast directly to her wings before kicking her aside with a smirk.

"There, another bug squashed," he spat before a blazing fist appeared out of nowhere, the target turning to the side to let an angry DMP shoot past. However he did not expect the mage to recover so quickly and use his momentum to kick the mage firmly in the shoulder, sending him flying backwards into Jebus before the pair crashed into the wall. Without waiting for a counter-attack DMP's hands shot out to release a tangled ball of fire, ice and lightning, much like the blades he had used. The resulting explosion when it met the wall melted and re-froze the rock in an instant, but not before enough smoke was released to screen the area from view.

DMP smirked before stumbling slightly, pulling himself back upright hastily as the area cleared, revealing a perfect bubble of untouched room around the slumped forms. Sebjon smirked as he held up a charged sphere of energy.

"And here was me thinking that the hero would never try to kill anyone... you truly have lost yourself to your evil side." Sebjon said silkily, causing the powered up dark mage to turn and face him with a growl, causing Sebjon to stop and look at his opponent appraisingly.

"You know you can't keep on using energy at this rate, even with anger you'll collapse if you carry on fighting."

"I have easily enough to take you down," came the snarled reply as the dark mage blurred, moving to Sebjon's side as the light mage held up the orb, forming a green barrier that drank up the attack DMP launched before fading. "Tut tut, not only are you forgetting I can drain your magic, but you're using magic too fast, I can see your energy flickering form here." The light mage smirked as he raised the orb again, forming a full dome of green as his opponent growled and started to blur once more.

Yet this time DMP didn't launch an attack, but shot in circles, trailing his hands behind him to form a v-shape. It soon became apparent that he was building up power, a sheath of dark reds, blues and purples with the occasional streak of yellow or light blue flowing round his body to spiral away from his hands in a brilliant display of power.

Sebjon's smirk vanished as he saw why DMP was really forming a circle. The outstretched hands were forming an anchor point for a swathe of wind that his was trailing like a banner, closing around Sebjon in a tightening blanket that was rapidly forming a tornado.

With a shriek the soul mage found himself lifted from the floor at around the same time he lost his grip on the orb and it fell into the tornado, smashing into mirror-bright fragments against the wall. With the destruction of the orb the shield around Sebjon faded, leaving him utterly defenceless against the merciless eyes of the mage bearing down on him from above.

As before the impact caused the magic DMP had built up to plunge into his target, though this time DMP also kicked back off the mage, causing the already limp body to contract around its stomach as the wind faded, not even giving a slight cushion to the light mage.

DMP landed gracefully, straightening with a final flush of power as he looked down on the severely injured soul mage with a grin. The aura that had surrounded DMP abruptly flickered and gave way, making the dark mage stagger and nearly fall, managing to catch himself in time as he forced himself towards where Timmy was placing Layla, the last of their group.

The exhausted mage didn't even blink as a massive portal appeared behind him, a spiralling light that the first clan members and witches sank into as the familiar voice of Digenten echoed through the room, causing the few remaining monitors to blink up a timer that began to tick down.

"Protocol Alpha Two Nine activate."

"It's a self destruct sequence," Timmy said, looking over at the swaying mage with worried eyes and clenched jaw, "we'll never get them out in time!" His mouth grew even tighter as DMP's legs folded, causing the mage to fall as his hair rippled, blue-tipped spikes fading to brown curls as his aura of power vanished. He managed to keep enough strength to form two vague words before he hit the floor and his eyes closed.

"Portal... Alf..."

"I'm already working on it..." Came the voice of the com watch, sounding almost compassionate as their own light portal formed, calm descending at last as Timmy watched himself and his friends sink slowly into the magical passage. On landing Timmy was unsurprised to see Faragonda walking speedily towards them then abruptly stopping.

"Oh my goodness..." she murmured, "what happened out there?"

"We'll have time to discuss it in detail once we get these guys to an infirmary," Timmy replied, lifting Tecna gently before Faragonda beckoned to a group of older students, instructing them in the conveyance of the battered group to the infirmary. With a quick look at the numbers the specialist sighed, he had a feeling there may not be enough beds for all of the patients.


	12. Recovery

Sorry about the long wait... but I was hiving fun drawing more 11th Clan members and watching people play children's card games. Anyway, moving on from worship of LittleKuriboh to the story I confess I don't own Winx club. What, you're not surprised?

Have fun!

* * *

Light curtains gently drifted in the breeze coming from the infirmary windows the next day, carrying the far-off chatter of students in the main courtyard to the ears of a bored fairy leaning on the windowsill, blonde hair flicking slightly in the wind as she looked enviously out at the sunshine.

"Is he still asleep?" she asked eventually, turning from the sunshine to walk over and plomp herself down on the dark mage's bed as Flora looked up from her book at her friend.

"Yes. His watch said..."

"She's an AI," Tecna interrupted, "and her name is Abi."

"Thank you, Abi said he does tend to sleep for varying periods of time," the nature fairy looked down at the sleeping man with a slight flicker of worry in her eyes, "It's been a while though..."

"My psychic beetle has run some scans and found that although he is asleep, mentally he's quite active," Tecna informed them from her seat, "It's as if he's learning in his sleep..."

The girls lapsed back into silence, Musa yawned sleepily and was just about to go back to sleep when DMP stirred, Stella hastily standing to get out of his way as he sat up and rubbed his eyes, seemingly continuing what he had been saying in the dream, "...so I can combine my dark shield with an ice layer to multiply its reflective abilities."

When all of the fairies stared at him the familiar grin returned, telling them their new friend was back to normal even before he spoke normally, "Oh right... my dreams are strange."

When the fairies nodded and went back to what they were doing Bloom remained watching DMP, or rather slightly above him, with a frown that made Musa raise an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Hey Bloom... What's up?" The fire fairy still kept her attention on the drowsy figure as she replied absent-mindedly to Musa's question.

"When he said he was human I was wondering why I couldn't see his inner self... But now I can. And I think I can see two..."

"That would be why Sebjon said they weren't fighting you, right?" Musa asked, looking over to the man for confirmation, only to be interrupted by Stella.

"Oh who cares about that? I want to know why his hair's changed!"

"Trust you to ask about the hair..."

With a yawn DMP grinned, ruffling the dark brown curls that had been pressed flat against the pillow, looking strange after the blue-tipped black spikes that they had gotten used to, though they were probably the same length in total.

"The answer to both is that I'm powered down," he explained, "Like you I transform, but the outfit isn't part of the deal and neither's the cool sequence. As for the mind thingy, every magic user has a small coating of magic that normally stops that kind of stuff. Didn't you ever wonder why you could take a fireball in the face while it would kill a human easily?"

"I guess that makes sense..." Layla said slowly as DMP made a move for his bag, then noticed the cans on the table next to him, looking up to see Musa and Bloom sharing a grin. He grabbed one of the cans and opened it, taking a drink before looking to the group.

"So what happened then?"

"Icy, Darcy and Stormy have been apprehended," came a firm voice from the doorway, all seven occupants of the room looking up to see the headmistress walking towards them, "the others we have no idea about. They vanished into a light portal leaving the witches behind."

DMP nodded before replying, "at a guess they've moved on to the next universe then."

"I'm not detecting any 1st clan activity in known systems," his watch replied, having picked up the hint in his tone. The mage then looked up at the women with a shrug.

"I suppose they could have gone home... Random question... Have any dark portals appeared around here?" When there was no reply bar a couple of confused looks and a polite raised eyebrow he sighed and explained, "like the one I came from... They appear automatically when I'm needed somewhere else... looks like some kid mixed up all the dark paints they could find?"

"The only portal we've seen recently is the one that bought you all back to Alfea," Faragonda replied, taking a step away from the bed as DMP swung his legs out and stood with a stretch.

"I guess that means I get some holiday!" He bent to rummage through his bag by the bed and pulled out what looked like a refined version of a hovering skateboard that theoretically shouldn't have fitted in the backpack. Any questions from people about either board or pack were cut off by the man's next question, "Got any good tracks around here?"

"Musa's got tons," Stella offered as Faragonda left. Layla was looking at the board curiously, wondering if it worked in a similar way to a surfboard as she virtually ignored the conversation.

"I meant race tracks..."

"What is that thing?" Layla said suddenly before DMP looked down at it.

"It's a kind of Extreme Gear, you can get skates and bikes too," he said, then shrugged, "basically it's a hover board..."

"Well I guess you could try the lake," Musa said with a shrug, "Riven loves racing around the paths on his hover bike."

"Good point..." DMP said thoughtfully as he slung his backpack onto his shoulders, "I really should have remembered that, see ya in a bit then." With that DMP promptly opened the window and jumped, feet connecting to the board and flipping it round before he landed and shot out the main gate, drawing some appreciative murmurs from the milling students.

"He doesn't wait long does he?" Layla said with a groan, "I wanted to ask him for a go..."

"Well we can always go and find him," Tecna said calmly, "I still want to talk to him so that I can have a look at his database. I just need to calculate the best method of integrating our systems..." she trailed off into thought as Layla stood, took Tecna by the shoulder and pushed her out, the others laughing and following.


	13. Extreme introduction

Online: the only place where filler episodes are followed shortly by something more interesting... Two chapters in one day might make up fro the gap.

I still don't own Winx club, this is unsurprising as nothing much happened in the last 15 mins or so...

* * *

﻿Tecna and Digit were still talking about the 11th Clan's computer systems as they came to the lake edge, the pixie sitting on Tecna's shoulder to see the display as she indicated various parts of the screen.

"The security was rather impressive. There weren't any usernames, let alone passwords to hack."

"How do they manage to identify users then?" Tecna asked as Digit shrugged, both interrupted by the halt of the group in front of them.

"So where is the dark magician anyway?" Stella asked as they emerged into the sunlight next to the lake. The others looked around, trying to scan the area when there was a light thump behind them, a flash of dark clothing before DMP slid to a stop in front of them.

"I thought you were on the lake," Flora said, a bit startled at his sudden appearance, "not approaching it!"

"I was," he said before wincing, "I just missed my landing. Oh, and to answer your question, he's in my deck..."

Stella blinked when she clicked he was addressing her "Huh?"

"The Dark Magician...? Okay never mind..." DMP shook his head and looked over to see the tidal fairy staring at his board again. Experimentally moving it to his other side to see if her eyes would follow it. When her eyes jerked up with a glare his mouth twitched into a smile. "Miles did give me a spare board if you want to borrow it... I did wonder why he made me a flight type board."

Admitting defeat to her curiosity Layla held out a hand to have a light blue and white board passed to it. Tecna opened her mouth to try and catch his attention when the pair vanished almost as fast as he came.

"Is he ever going to stay still long enough for me to question him?" Tecna asked Digit, who shook her head, the answer confirmed by Musa,

"I don't think that guy could slow down if he tried... let's just head back to Alfea and relax, after all, we're meant to still be in the infirmary, remember?"

"Well I don't care!" came the solar fairy's annoyed mutter, "I know I'll get better faster if I can just have a little time to sleep in the sun, after all you saw the wonders it did for my energy back in Downland."

"I wouldn't mind basking a bit either, but I really ought to give my plants some more water..." Flora said with a slight bite of her lip as the group turned back to do something normal for a change.

They were still in the courtyard some time later when Flora returned from tending to her plants for the third time since they got back, looking at the sky and then at the fairies in various relaxed postures, about half of them watching the pixies try and catch Kiko with mild amusement.

"I thought they said they'd meet us back here?" the nature fairy asked, sitting down next to Musa to look at the magazine she was reading only for the dark-haired fairy to look up at the gates.

"They're coming now."

"How can you tell?" Stella asked curiously, eyes still closed and hands behind her head as the pixies stopped to look.

"I can hear them..." the musical fairy replied as two figures shot out of the canopy opposite the school, pulling tricks in mid-air which got appreciative applause and grins from the Winx club.

It was almost a pity that the jump which displayed Layla and DMP's tricks so well also gave them a perfect view of the latter slamming into thin air and sliding painfully to the floor. The board seemed utterly unaffected by its lack of rider, shooting straight towards the group and causing Flora and Musa to jump out of the way before they made their way to where the dark mage had lifted himself onto his elbows with a grimace.

"Ow..." he said before looking at the fairies around him, " forgot I was powered down..." DMP explained with a rueful grin that badly needed an anime sweatdrop.

"You crashed into the barrier?" Stella said, confused, "But you're a mage!"

Bloom interrupted before DMP could reply, "he's human, remember?"

"So how come it didn't affect him last time?" Stella pointed out.

"I'm assuming it is due to the coating of magical energy he mentioned earlier," Tecna replied as the dark mage stood up and dusted off his trousers.

"Plus the fact that I came in by a portal anyway," he said with a shrug before closing his eyes and concentrating for a moment, hair changing to the blue-tipped black spikes as he powered up. When he opened his eyes a moment later the fairies were staring.

"Was that it?" Musa asked, "I mean I know you don't like pretty effects but..."

"I need to get a henshin," he said bluntly, "deal with it... Anyway, I told you that tree made a good ramp," he commented walking through the barrier with his attention on Layla.

"Who said it wouldn't?" replied the fairy as handed the board back, causing DMP to give a shrug in reply before shoving the board into his backpack,

"Er... 4kids?"

"You keep saying that name," Digit said as she flew over to the man, "Why?"

"Sorry Amy, If I can't blame Microsoft, they're next on the list," he grinned, putting the board back in his pack before Flora's voice slipped into the conversation.

"Who's Amy?"

"Er... I meant Digit," he replied with the exaggerated grin that implied he knew he had made a mistake and was covering it up before Digit yelled at him. It seemed that he failed judging by the tone of the pixie's next statement...

"Is my name that hard to remember?"

"Well considering I struggle to remember what happened eight seconds ago..." the dark mage retorted before Bloom replied sceptically.

"You can't be that bad..."

"Well I try..." he replied, "and that sounded scarily like one of my friends..." he was interrupted by the arrival of the elfin teacher who had spotted him and swiftly walked over.

"Ah, there you are," he said before straightening his jacket, "Ms Faragonda wishes to speak with you."

"I'd ask what I did wrong, but a list of what I did right would be shorter," DMP admitted as he followed Palladium to Faragonda's office, immediately caught by a barrel-load of questions as he walked away from the girls.

"So what do you think Miss F wants to see him about?" Stella said, having not moved for the entire exchange as Layla flopped down next to Musa to also read the magazine as she replied.

"She's probably going to get him to stay at Red Fountain or something..."

"Probably, especially if Grizelda's in on it, imagine her letting someone stay here with nothing to do," Musa said with a laugh.

The calm that resulted lasted for a full minute before Tecna frowned, "Something's registering on my systems, it's like a portal but with a completely different signature and form, though comprising of all the elements needed."

"Which direction?" Musa asked as she stood before Tecna tilted her head back, still frowning.

"Directly up, but I can't see a portal."

"Neither can I, could it be trouble?" Bloom replied, eyes scanning the sky before spotting a figure descending towards them, "I can see them."

"Be prepared in case they attack," Tecna said warningly, eyes on the silhouette high above them. From what she could see the dark silhouette looked like some sort of bird, large wings spreading from it as it hovered above the school like an omen. 


	14. The golden mage

Hiya, another delicious chapter for you now, complete with dividers!

You know the disclaimer by now... I do not own Winx club.

* * *

The bird folded its wings and plummeted, opening them to halt its descent about 20 feet above them at the sight of the fireball Bloom had prepared. Now that the figure was closer the group it was revealed that the 'bird' was actually a long-haired human with large wings, the illusion of a wide tail created by the long golden coat the figure wore.

"Well that's one way to make a visitor feel welcome..." came the voice that identified her as a woman, "I don't suppose you guys can do me a favour and tell Miss Faragonda that I need to talk to her?"

"She's busy talking to someone else right now," Bloom replied, "Besides, we don't know if you're safe."

"If I meant you any harm I would have attacked already," came the frank reply, "But from what you said I'm guessing there's been trouble?"

"A bit," Bloom's fireball vanished, "Why don't you come down and talk?"

"I need to check around the school to see if the person I'm looking for's here," she explained, feathered wings beating steadily to lift her into a flying position again, "besides, you know you're curious about what's going on in the office, I can tell that much from here."

"She does have a point," Tecna said as the woman glided off around the school, "and besides, you do have a legitimate reason."

"Well let's go deliver the message then!" Stella said, glad at being able to do something, "after all, we wouldn't want to miss anything... I mean miss telling Miss F before that girl arrives."

"I don't think all of us will be needed though," Tecna said, remaining seated. Flora stood to head back to the dorm as Layla just remained collapsed, tired from the boarding.

"So, three to see Miss F!"

"Four if you count the visitor," Musa grinned as Stella ignored her and started to walk, causing the others to grin.

* * *

The three fairies crowded at the door to look through whatever gaps they could into the office, seeing that DMP was once more sitting in front of the headmistress' desk facing a standing Faragonda and a particularly forbidding looking Griselda, and the fairies knew the expression on the deputy's face all too well. They really hoped she wasn't going to punish him too badly...

It didn't look like he was paying too much attention by the jerk of his head when the headmistress spoke, "So normally when the first clan leave a universe a portal appears to take you back to your home as well?"

"Pretty much," he replied, watching as Faragonda walked around to her mirror, considering it for a moment before turning away to look at the dark mage.

"So it's possible that they're still around..."

The black-haired mage nodded, "Yeah, but judging by the beatdown they received, it's more likely that they've left and I've been given a few days break."

"You mean you get a vacation? From saving the universe? That is... an interesting concept," Faragonda said a little awkwardly before sending a firm glance at the disapproving Griselda, letting the guest continue speaking.

"Well the last time it happened I entered the 3rd Ex World Grand Prix," he made a face as he thought about the issue, "they still haven't told me when the next one's planned to take place..."

"Well if you're staying around here you will have to stick to the rules like everyone else." Now the fairies outside winced, they knew what was coming. Bloom thought that clipboard looked familiar.

However it seemed DMP didn't care too much by the tone he used, "Screw the rules, I have money..." The glare that Griselda gave him made the fairies draw away from the door slightly, though the dark mage seemed unaffected, simply reaching into his pocket and pulling out a few small objects he showed to the deputy,

"See? £2.15 and a new AAA battery..."

At the completely furious expression on Griselda's face he put them back in his pocket and sat still, letting the torrent of rules wash over him. Stella listened unbelievingly for a few minutes before whispering to Musa, "we're meant to follow those?"

"Yes..."

"Wow..."

After another five minutes of watching DMP pretending not to be alive and Faragonda doing much the same thing while looking through her papers DMP cut off Griselda with a tone as respectful as normal, "So do they really need to stay outside or what?"

"Uh-oh" murmured Stella as Griselda's eyes snapped over to Faragonda in a question.

"What is he..?"

The doors flew open as Faragonda waved her hand at them, "You may as well come in girls..." the lack of support made all three fairies fall forwards to the floor, sprawling in front of the stern deputy, the headmistress fighting not to smile and the broadly grinning man leaning over the back of his seat,

"Don't you guys get taught stealth tactics at all?" he asked as they girls stood and brushed themselves off.

"I think I slept through that class..." Stella said in reply before Bloom took care of delivering their message.

"We came to tell you that someone's here to see you, they're just looking around to check what they sensed."

Faragonda nodded in reply as DMP seemed to turn his attention to planning something, "I'll go plan out some super special awesome tactics for you then..."

"Drawing random lines on a scrap of paper isn't exactly planning..." came Abi's voice before DMP even moved, causing the dark mage to protest,

"But Blossom does it..."

"Her lines actually represent something," the AI informed him as he stood up and left with the fairies, giving one last reply to his watch.

"Whatever..."

Once the students and dark mage had left Faragonda remained in her seat, watching the door to wait for the person the girls had told her of to enter however when nothing happened Faragonda stood, walking over to the door in case they were waiting outside.

The white haired head turned to look both ways down the empty corridor before retreating back into her office and shutting the door. "How strange... I could have sworn they were nearby," she commented, starting to walk back to her chair when she felt it again, the buzz of someone watching her. The headmistress frowned slightly and turned. The presence was strong, but also felt gentle, like passive sunlight as opposed to the bright and bubbly fairies she was used to. When she saw no-one she decided she'd had enough of games already today, "Whoever you are, show yourself!"

"I thought it would be a bit rude to just phase through the window," came the reply from the other side of the windows, causing the headmistress to turn and look out, only seeing a golden bird circling a small way from the balcony. With a smile the headmistress opened the window and stepped back, her guess confirmed as the bird turned and dived through the gap. However as its legs swung forward to land they changed, talons shifting smoothly to human feet as the rest followed, dark hair floating behind her before she landed in a crouch, straightening to smile at the fairy.

The first thing that struck Miss Faragonda was how the transformation had occurred, with a smooth and natural ease, implying that this woman used magic a lot, if only shapeshifting. The second was that she dressed as light as DuelMasterP dressed dark, the long light golden coat the same colour as the feathers resting over white cloth trousers and t-shirt, revealing a golden necklace the same colour as the coat at her neck that shifted when the headmistress tried to look at it closely.

"Sorry about that, I needed to make sure I was in the right place," the stranger said with a rueful smile, Miss Faragonda simply shook her head and indicated a seat.

"What did you wish to speak to me about?"

The gold-robed woman rubbed the back of her neck, as if wondering where to start, eventually settling on a simple question, "What do you know about other universes? Not realms, universes."

"A surprising amount," the headmistress replied, drawing a raised eyebrow from the younger woman, "we seem to have been having a lot of visitors from them lately, I suppose you're another?"

"Got it in one," the woman replied with a smile, "I'm actually here to take one of them back, though judging by what you said it may need to be more than one that I need to find..." she fell into silence, tucking a clump of brown hair behind her ear to stop it falling into her face.

"Who was the one you were sent here to collect?" asked Miss Faragonda curiously, making the woman flick her eyes up to meet them.

"Not who, what," she corrected, straightening up to meet her gaze squarely, "it's basically an interuniversal prankster, but I think it's doing rather more than it intended..."

"How do you mean?" Miss. Faragonda asked politely, frowning slightly in confusion before the girl closed her eyes.

"I was afraid this would happen, the real danger with what it does is that people can miss things," the golden-robed mage hesitated, trying to phrase this carefully, "Sometimes it needs someone from outside to see a problem... it might be best for you to check the magical energies under the school too, If one thing's gone wrong it's likely to affect other things, especially if it was caused by the... erm..." she searched for a word that wasn't entirely specific, making the headmistress wonder why she was deliberately being vague, "prankster."

Immediately the headmistress stretched out her hand and concentrated for a moment before her eyes snapped open from their contemplative state. With another swift movement she stood and tapped her mirror, images of Griselda, Palladium, Avalon and Wizgiz appearing on its surface.

"Report to my office immediately," she said clearly and calmly before cutting off the image and turning to face the neutral woman in silence, "Explain.".


	15. Catching a prankster

Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I've been working on another 11th clan story and art stuff for them... Anyway, I still don't own Winx, and here's chapter 15 for you.

Random info: The prank was partially Sirius Black's idea...

* * *

Faragonda looked up at her selected five teachers and the girl in front of her desk, wondering how she could begin. "Around this time of year many students and teachers are put under a large amount of stress by examinations, this of course is increased by the recent events... However it also means that we are distracted from what may be happening under our noses."

When Faragonda paused no-one spoke, waiting for her to continue, "I have been informed by an outside eye that our school has been under the influence of a rather interesting enchantment, increasing the stress levels in the school by means of a gas." When she paused to consider the next sentence she held up a hand, stemming any questions that may come from the deputy headmistress, "however, although it is disturbing we did not notice the presence of the prankster, what is of much more concern is the method in which it hid itself, by using the tunnels beneath our school. As you all know the tunnels are spelled to be labyrinthine so that people without a set of directions cannot enter through it... but also so anything placed there cannot escape."

Now the headmistress could not stop Griselda interrupting, "Headmistress you should not be speaking of these things in front of a stranger! They are extremely powerful and knowledge of them should be kept to a minimum!"

"You don't need to worry," the gold-robed mage said quietly, "if they've been sealed and placed in such a place then it's pretty obvious they're dangerously powerful. I like myself the way I am, _without_ extra arms or turning into an evil psychopath thanks."

"Besides," Faragonda replied, "she is coming with us in order to find the person who's doing this and return them to their universe." She paused then continued, "As I was saying this prankster has been using portals in order to move from the main school to the passages at random, meaning that the artefacts and creatures they may have been... disturbed." the headmistress paused to look at the teachers with her, "The reason why I need you is to reseal some of the enchantments that it may have been broken or twisted, the magic requires Alfea professors to complete in order to be accepted by the passages and kept in a state of renewable statis. The five of us should be sufficient. Once this is done we will need to clear up the corridors, though the effects normally fade over a period of a few days according to our guest."

The elf nodded, hair rippling slightly as he turned to look at the new girl with a smile, "So we have another guest from a different universe working alongside us! It really is amazing how everything happens at once! So," he continued as they turned to walk out of the office, "since we're working together we really ought to know your name."

The golden robed girl laughed, "it's so easy to forget to ask for a name isn't it? Just call me Estantia."

"How will we recognise this prankster when we find them?" the short professor asked eagerly, "If they're this good at hiding we might miss them in the crowds!"

"Trust me," the girl said with a wince, "you'll know them when you see them, especially if they were silly enough to join a crowd..."

"Ah I see, so they have a shape which doesn't fit into the general population then!" came the enthusiastic reply. Avalon's eyebrow rose as the girl burst out laughing, then nodded.

"I guess you could say that," she admitted as they entered a door which Estantia could have sworn wasn't there a moment ago. Not that this wasn't a standard feature of most magical schools but still served a useful purpose. Once they were in the tunnels Estantia opened her hand, a golden orb the colour of her coat floating above it before she let it drift to her side.

For a while they walked among the passages, the headmistress steadily leading them towards a point as the other teachers kept watch warily. Even Avalon, who had not been at the school long, could feel a sense of wrongness in the air, as if it was watching them, waiting for them to make a wrong step...

Suddenly Faragonda stopped with a frown, "is this another of the tricks?"

"Yes," the girl replied instantly, "paranoia and nervousness, but why would he let it off down here, there's no-one to affect..."

"Unless it was meant to be a test, to see if it worked?" Wizgiz offered before Palladium chipped in.

"It feels rushed though, more like a distress signal than a prank, maybe he used his own emotions?" there was a small silence when he said that and Estantia's globe flashed, revealing a reasonably solid trail of purple gas.

"It hasn't dispersed yet, this is recent," she replied, "he could easily be right, in which case it's managed to let something off..."

"Either that or it's a trap," came Griselda's sharp voice, "What do you think?"

"We follow the trail," Faragonda said firmly, looking to the others, "Even if it has caused our school problems we can't leave it if it may be in danger."

With a series of nods the group followed the trail, the golden orb bobbing along it, putting on speed with the group when the air rippled with the silent roar of something that had been chained for far too long.

The group raced around a final corner to find themselves facing a small circular room lit by torches, reflecting dizzily of a glaringly golden disc at the end opposite the corridor that for some strange reason had shapes cut out of it, leaving pure blackness behind. Or at least it appeared that way before the dark shape moved, snapping into the shape of a Minotaur's head and torso trying to force themselves out of the plate and glaring hatred at the ones who had entered.

Estantia's attention however was to one side of the plate, where a large figure that could only be the prankster was slowly backing away from the disc. When it heard footsteps it whirled around, eyes widening at the sight of the girl as much as the teachers' eyes widened at the sight of it.

"I fully sympathize with you not explaining in detail," Avalon said in the silence as he fully took in what he was seeing. To be fair everything Estantia had said was truthful, it would certainly stand out in a crowd and they would definitely recognise it as soon as they saw it.

It was a bunny.

A six foot without-the-ears, pink furred _bunny_ standing on its back legs with a pouch on its golden-furred tummy staring at them in panic. At the sight of the girl it immediately hopped backwards, looking for an exit before reaching for the pouch pocket. A sharp shake of the head from the girl forced its hand to reluctantly withdraw but with a flick of the ear another idea seemed to occur to the creature, turning and preparing to hop into the wall. In response the girl's hand flashed out as if catching hold of its arm and yanking it backwards, despite the fact she was actually holding onto the air a few metres away this seemed to work quite well, knocking the bunny to the floor to avoid the shadowy hand that had been trying to capture it. With a rumbling growl at having missed its target the hand fell back to brace against the wall and pull it out of the plate.

"Everyone, positions," came the headmistress' voice, sharp for once as the teachers formed a circle, holding hands in order to charge up power with their chanting while Estantia's whisper lashed out to the frantic creature.

"You idiot! Your portals are what's been setting this thing loose, just stay with us so you don't get skinned by that thing!"

There was a nod before the bunny stood, trying to move away from the plate before a dark hand fastened around it and slammed it to the wall. The spell that had been starting faltered at the sight of the captive, the symbols that had been forming fading slightly before the golden mage spoke, "continue the spell, I'll make sure this guy stays where he's supposed to be!"

The woman walked to stand in between the circle of Alfea professors and the shadowy creature with a grin that completely contrasted with the character they'd seen so far. Her eyes sparkled with a mix of playful mischief and a hunter's smile before lunging forward in a blur of motion.

"Time to kick butt."


	16. Sealing them in

Heya, sorry about the wait, I've been busy with Uni and friends and getting some parts of this to work properly. The next chapter should be up fairly soon now I've given the next section a major re-write and am finally satisfied with it. Enjoy!

I don't own Winx, if I DID own Winx, I would know when the movie was coming out over here in England! Anyone else have any ideas?

* * *

_The woman walked to stand in between the circle of Alfea professors and the shadowy creature with a grin that completely contrasted with the character they'd seen so far. Her eyes sparkled with a mix of playful mischief and a hunter's smile before lunging forward in a blur of motion._

"_Time to kick butt."_

With a nod from Faragonda the teachers' spell began again, power racing around the professors to form an enclosed circle of white light, their voices working together as the golden mage closed the distance between herself and the Minotaur, ducking under one lunging hand before jumping to slam a kick into the nose of the beast. The roar of the monster as it slid backwards into the plate was mirrored a moment later by the shriek of the bunny when the fingers dug in, followed almost immediately by the bunny's teeth sinking into the darkness, then letting go with a revolted look.

With the enclosing ring complete four voices fell to a hum, leaving only the leprechaun chanting in something that was nearly a song in words that you couldn't quite understand, but definitely made sense somehow. Whatever the words were a ribbon of glowing blue symbols spun in the middle of the circle, a rippling sheath of the same light blue wrapping around the figure as the golden mage shot forwards. This time she threw a golden orb at the hand keeping the bunny pinned to the wall, rewarding her with a growl and a swing from the other fist the she easily jumped above, using the time in the air to sling a bolt of magic at the wrist.

In the short period of the relaxation of the hand the bunny's paw slipped into the pouch, held there as the fingers fastened securely again, though this time it was grinning. With the paw in the pouch it pulled out what seemed to be a giant baby blue egg, letting it fall over a finger to his large feet, which juggled the egg bomb between them for a moment before giving it a hefty kick into the Minotaur's mouth where it quite obviously exploded, causing the eyes to flicker slightly for a moment. Estantia took advantage of the lapse in concentration to land another flying kick to the wrist holding the bunny, causing enough of a jolt to drop the bunny, who promptly sped out of range with the girl as the sleep bomb wore off.

Behind the pair Wizgiz's bubbling chant now became less prominent, though still audible to keep the blue symbols and shaft of light as bright as ever. The strange chant didn't stop though, becoming what was definitely a lilting song under the influence of the elf's light baritone. He introduced symbols of a brilliant emerald to the space at the centre of the circle with the same colour power flowing over his body. Unlike the leprechaun his eyes were open, carefully nurturing the magic rather than the closed eyed buoyancy of before.

As if sensing the buildup of power the minotaur now struggled harder, causing the girl to become more inventive with her attacks in order to slow him down. A quick slap of power from either side nearly sent its hands back into the plate before he lifted them away from the wall, suddenly finding his arms encased in ice and useless as the girl flew in for another kick, sending a good foot of it back into the plate before she had to fly out of the way, narrowly missing the sledgehammer of ice as it smashed into the wall above its head and pushed forward, roaring madly at the mage that was shooting it repeatedly in the face with golden blasts of magic.

Meanwhile the bunny seemed to be having an incredible amount of fun throwing eggs of different colours at the Minotaur's mouth, watching the different expressions crossing the shadowy face with great interest until it gained a sarcastic glare from the girl, "At least someone's having fun..."

As if in answer to that statement Palladium's voice faded to the background with Wizgiz's, allowing the deeper voice of Avalon to join them in the chant and add another layer of complexity to the sealing spell. He contributed a twisting column of light yellow symbols the same colour as the wings that had formed on the Paladin's back, the feathers merging with the coating of yellow magic that had started to surround him. His posture was similar to Palladium's, but with eyes calmly closed in order to concentrate. With this addition to the chant a wind started to ripple, gently lifting the hair off Palladium and Avalon's backs and causing the skirts of the two female fairies to ripple gently.

Estantia grinned as she felt the wind passing her and spun, hair and coat flowing with the wind as she looped some of it up into her own power and shot her palms out, slamming the wind into the Minotaur with a constant force as her other magic wound around her wrists, ready to send a quick bolt in. However the beast was still pushing its way out, slamming frozen fists against the back wall to give it momentum before the ice shattered. The golden robed girl hastily threw up a shield, coat flaring out with the power before the shield flexed, throwing the ice shards back at the monster despite the fact they wouldn't do much damage.

However her next attack would do a lot more damage, she thought as she hurtled forwards, easily flowing into dragon form before opening her mouth and giving the Minotaur a truly painful flamethrower in the face as one wing furled, sending her corkscrewing to one side to rake the beast's upper arm with four sets of talons before she broke away, wincing as her tail was slammed against the wall. Her response was to turn, kicking off the wall as she shifted back to human form, the lack of a tail meaning that she was free to slam a kick into the beast's forehead before flipping back off. The mage landed comfortably in mid air before straightening to shoot another billow of fire at the injured arm when the Minotaur made to push off the wall with it, causing him to fall back painfully, eyes full of deep hatred that the golden mage met cooly as a harsh voice joined the chant behind her.

Griselda's voice certainly wasn't as flowing as Palladium's but the power it contained was evident, her coating of magic bursting into life almost at once with the symbols in the centre flaring a hot red that virtually pulsed with power. Now the harmonies underneath were starting to build up, four out of five points covered as Estantia turned back to the shadow Minotaur and frowned. She had mostly pushed it back in, why was it coming out so easily? She held out her hands in front of her and pushed against the air, the translucent shield this time was golden, and met very little resistance when it forced against the shadowy creature before it realised what was happening

After a silent pause she stepped forwards, forcing the beast back into the disk with a strain of effort. For all she had the magical strength his physical wasn't too bad. It seemed that wherever that thing was the seal needed to be completely removed before it could be resealed, that or the bunny had done far more damage than intended. Speaking of which... She looked over at the offending creature and jerked her head towards the Minotaur.

"If you don't want to get your tail _kicked_ back to the surface than you'd better help me out here."

"But I can't throw eggs through the shield..." it started in a pathetic voice before she glared at it.

"Who controls the shield?" It seemed the bunny had no reply to that, instead rummaging around for a particularly potent egg as he uncertainly hopped between the mage and his target. He had a feeling this may be a bad idea but annoying the mage was a worse one. With a fierce bout of concentration he tried to push as strong a love and sleep gas mixture into the egg as he could muster then flicked an ear.

The golden disc in front of him swirled around a point, then pulled away, creating a perfectly circular hole spinning on itself opposite the bellowing creature's mouth. With a gulp the bunny lobbed the egg as hard as he could, watching with horror as the Minotaur slammed his mouth shut with a malevolent grin, the egg shooting past it to shatter uselessly against its neck. With a frown from the golden mage the shield she had been used shut and then expanded from the outside, edges of the disc arcing round and anchoring themselves to the wall, the new curvature causing the Minotaur's hands to slip and slam his head into it. With nowhere else to go the gas leaked upwards, slipping softly into the Minotaur's nostrils with a speechless sense of horror from the beast as it weakened and Estantia moved forwards, forcing it back into the metal disc that had sealed it.

The Bunny got out of the way fast, not only from the golden mage but also the circle of professors, where all five points were now blazing, the headmistress forming a column of bright white light with her voice, surprisingly strong considering her appearance. No symbols formed at her chant, but the white light racing round the circle flared, becoming more like a ring of floating fire that expanded from the teachers bodies to form a perfect circle.

Suddenly the teachers with their underlying harmonies and words merged together to form one set of words, the sheaths of magic blossoming into columns of molten fire with an expanding aura of power. Estantia's head turned when she felt the blossoming strength, eyes widening before she shot away, leaving the space between the group and the Minotaur's plate empty as she tried to force the last part of the shadow creature inside.

The images rose from the teachers and turned, squarely facing the golden disc as Estantia tried to pull her shield away from the plate. Suddenly the images blurred, imprinting themselves into the plate and shield as Estantia cut her ties to her own magic.

The girl rubbed her head before she walked over to the teachers, who now were using each other for support, "This is generally why I stick to low power spells..." Estantia said before she glared at the Bunny, "and you are going to help me for all the trouble you caused,"

"What's in it for me? You're only going to punish me later..." he folded his paws across his chest and Estantia rolled her eyes.

"I'll stretch our former deal to cover all magical schools, there's still no going in normal schools for you."

"Done." The bunny hopped over and tilted his head, considering the leprechaun before picking him up , then popped him inside the pouch before she supported the two taller teachers when Estantia took the weight of the two women after forming a set of wings to give them extra support.

"Come on, infirmary for these guys," she said before starting to walk, the Bunny carefully following behind.


	17. Meet and wander off again

This is rather a long chapter, I'm afraid there wasn't really a suitable place to split it otherwise... anyway, enjoy!

I do not own Winx, Tetris or any other stuff that D might decide to reference to, except the 11th Clan stuff, that IS ours...

* * *

"There must be something we can do to thank you for your help." Faragonda stated a few hours later when the two were back in her office, "You've done rather a lot for us in a short space of time..."

"Just leave it," the golden mage replied, "helping out is what I do and the Bunny is mostly my fault anyway, it was an Easter prank by me and a friend called Sirius that went a little wrong," she explained before remembering something, "How did you know about other universes before I got here anyway?"

"There was a group of evil mages that came here and tried to attack Alfea, why?" Faragonda raised an eyebrow as Estantia looked thoughtfully at the door.

"I think that the other person I may be looking for is here too... As well as some unexpected visitors."

"No, I did send for them," Faragonda replied as the doors opened to reveal the group, Estantia smiling at their entry before moving out the way of Faragonda's view.

"Girls, I heard you were worried about me?"

"Well..." Bloom started before trailing off, leaving Tecna put into words what Bloom was attempting to say.

"Flora heard that you were all in the infirmary from when she went to take her plant to Palladium, we were concerned at what could take out five teachers so easily."

"The problem has been fixed, with the help of this lady here, and it seems that she might be able to use your help too."

"Sure!" Bloom said, relieved, "What do you need help with?"

"It's finding a Dark mage," Estantia admitted, "they've been avoiding me for weeks, and if I've finally managed to catch up with them I don't want them to get away... Plus the fact that lightsiders normally attack them on sight and I don't want anyone hurt.."

"So you need to lure them out where you can catch them, right?" Stella said brightly, "In which case why don't you set a trap or something?"

The new mage grinned as she thought about it, "You know, that might actually work..."

Meanwhile DMP was walking through the courtyard back to the school with the pixies buzzing around him in arguing a little over the results of the Tetris tournament he had set up in the last few hours.

"Ha! I beat you all!" Zing said, shooting around the group in dizzying circles while Lockette watched her zoom around from her perch on the Dark mage's shoulder.

"Didn't Digit and Tune beat you?"

Zing came to an abrupt halt in front of the pixie to glare at her, "those matches didn't count," she stated firmly before DMP shrugged Lockette off his shoulder to break the tension,

"You know it's just a game right?"

"But you said games are important," the technical fairy reminded the man before he nodded,

"Well yes, they can help the brain develop new ways of thinking, doesn't mean you should get worked up over it..."

At this point the blonde pixie flew up to catch DMP's attention, turning to face him as she pointed at a vague light in a shady corner of the courtyard, motioning everyone to go and investigate "Let's see what it is!" she exclaimed before shooting towards it, DMP and the others following to discover a screen floating in the air partway through a game. At the sight of it DMP looked sideways at the pixies before speaking idly.

"Looks like someone left this game running... Might as well beat their high scores...As they're not playing it..." DMP flashed a grin and grabbed the controller.

Suddenly a blast of golden magic fired out the screen, pixies scattering as the mage threw up a dark shield, only just in time to prevent the blast catching him unprotected. With the initial blast fired a hooded figure blurred out of the screen, sending another golden bolt of magic out before DMP ducked and rolled away, coming up with a grin at the figure.

"Okay it's better than facing the wrong way but still..."

Both the pixies and the fairies who came out of hiding looked thoroughly confused when the attacker laughed and lowered her hood, the cloth vanishing as she let go and revealing that Estantia was grinning, "I resent that... And what are you doing here anyway?"

"Wishing this was the CN version..." DMP replied when he stretched, then looking at the staring fairies, "What?"

"I thought you said you wanted to catch him!" Stella said as she looked at the girl, who winced as she realised what had happened,

"So _that's_ why you wanted me to put a magical net in... I meant I wanted to catch him before either of us got dragged off somewhere else or you attacked him by accident..."

"They already did that one," DMP replied, before turning his attention back to the fairies "Yeah, this is my friend Estantia, one of the sensible ones in the 11th Clan."

"I'm guessing the group of evil mages Faragonda mentioned were the First then?" Estantia asked, getting a nod from the group before she explained, "We originally come from a universe where the lightsider and darksider divide doesn't exist, then later on we found out we'd both been hopping between the universes without the other knowing."

"It does seem kinda weird that light and dark spellcasters are friends..." Stella said uncertainly before DMP groaned, falling into step beside the others as they walked to the main building.

"So everyone keeps telling me, but they get on really well if they're not trying to kill each other..." he promptly got grinned at by Estantia, who translated,

"He's just annoyed that's he's the only dark type who ever gets attacked on sight by lightsiders." At this the group laughed, minus DMP, before Stella spoke in a cheerier voice,

"I guess us fairies are a society of light people..."

For some strange reason the two mages winced, D looking to his friend with a resigned expression, "You'd think that I'd have thought of a Sartorius joke by now..." All she did was shake her head in a resigned way before looking up with a jerk.

"Oh heck, seems I'm not done," she muttered before looking over to the girls, "I need to go and find whatever it is that needs doing, but I know you're going to try and follow me anyway, so I may as well invite you now..."

"I don't know if everyone knowing what we're like is an advantage or not..." Layla commented to the others as DMP sat himself down next to wall,

"See you later then, I have to do some stuff."

"You're just going to sit and play games again," Estantia replied with a grin before she walked off with the girls, "come on, he probably won't have moved by the time we're done."

"So what's it this time?" Bloom said as the fairies followed Estantia, who just turned and grinned as she walked backwards.

"I've no idea... All I know is that it's in roughly this area," she said with a shrug.

"Then why don't we split up?" Bloom replied, "that way we can cover more ground, and if we need to find the others then it shouldn't be too hard."

"We can send messages via Abi anyway," Estantia replied, "I'm guessing Tecna's already stored her in her contacts list."

"It was a logical decision..." The digital fairy pointed out as Abi also replied,

"I was following procedure, not that you ever do."

"Most of the people I talk to don't even know what a _watch_ is, let alone an AI," the human pointed out before grinning at the girls, "So Flora and Musa can come with me and the rest of you stay with Tecna, ok?"

"See you later!" Stella said cheerfully as they separated, heading in different directions before the others rounded a corner, walking for a few minutes before frowning slightly, "So what are we looking for again?"

"Anything strange..." Tecna said with a partial sigh, "Things that shouldn't be there."

"Like that mirror Stella's now using to preen herself in?"

At Layla's curious statement all of them whirled around to look at the blonde girl sorting her hair out in a mirror hung on the wall, who looked over her shoulder questioningly,

"What?"

"Since _when _have there been mirrors in Alfea corridors?" Bloom asked as Tecna walked over to scan it.

"It's definitely real, and seems like a perfectly normal mirror," Tecna concluded, turning to face the other three, "however there is a random factor."

"This place... doesn't feel quite real does it?" Layla said, blinking a bit, "it's kind of like in the ocean where there's different layers of current under each other." The fire fairy nodded, Layla's explanation did tie in with what Tecna was saying, but the intuitive feel was easier to understand.

"Well if we're in the odd bit why don't we keep on walking?" Stella pointed out, "Then we can find out what's causing it and stop it!"

"I agree, let's go!" Bloom said with a grin before continuing to walk down the corridor.

A few minutes later Estantia, Musa and Flora came to a junction of corridors, Estantia stopping with a frown, "Hey guys, just a small question..."

"What?"

"We ARE on the outer edge of the school building right?"

"Well yeah, you can see the forest out of the window," Musa said with a frown, "What's up?"

The golden mage looked back at the fairies while she pointed to the intersection, "So how come there's a corridor going that way?"

There was a small silence as the girls stood at the entrance to the corridor, Flora looking down both before exclaiming quietly.

"It's the same, look, it even has Avalon's office!"

"I can only think of three explanations right now," the golden mage said, opening her eyes, "either it's a random dimension rift, we found where Alfea's Grand Palace entrance is, or there's something trying to kidnap students..."

"The question is, do we go in?" Flora said gently, turning to face them in a swirl of hair.

"Well we are pretty strong," Musa pointed out, "If it's a trap we can call the others for help or bust out ourselves, if it's a rift then Estantia can make a portal, and I don't know what this Grand Palace thing is."

"It's basically a walkthrough portal," the mage said with a shrug, "You know how when you're in a big posh place you can get lost?" Estantia asked, drawing nods from the others, "you're walking along and you don't recognise anything, then when you're really panicking you turn a corner and you see something you recognise, then you go a little further and you're sure of where you are again?"

Another series of nods let her continue, "That's the Grand Palace. It's kind of a meeting place for all the corridors of posh buildings you can get lost in, but it's actually a worldlet in its own right, in official speak it's a connective worldlet."

"So you could walk between different places without realising it?"

"Yup," she replied, "the one I usually use is the path of forests. The theory behind that is... Flora, what's succession?"

"Every piece of land wants to become a forest," Flora said automatically, surprised by the question, "the kind of forest they become depends on the conditions but if they're left for long enough they all manage to get to what's called a climax community. I don't see how that fits though..."

"Because they'll all reach that climax community at some point," the golden mage said simply, "that means that they'll all connect at some point, and you just tap into those points and walk between using the forest paths."

The golden-robed mage walked into the corridor a few steps and nodded, "Yup, it's only very faint because it's virtually normal space, but it feels like a worldlet alright."

"Okay, so we just need to seal it off and collect anyone who went down it, simple," Musa stated, then paused, "or am I missing something?"

"Actually it IS a good idea to know where the entrance to a worldlet is," Estantia said with a shrug, "it's handy to escape and it stops it popping up elsewhere."

"So what can we do to stop people going through it?" Flora asked gently, "Normally you said they just end up in the same place but..."

"Illusion?" Musa suggested and Estantia nodded.

She lifted her hand to the entrance and looked at the rest of the corridor, nodding once before sweeping her hand down sideways. With the movement an image swept down over the space like a blind, fusing into the walls so that it looked virtually identical to the walls either side, complete with window and view, with the right amount of difference for it not to look suspicious. In fact, the only way you could truly tell which was the entrance was its position opposite Avalon's corridor.

"You've got to show us how to do that sometime," mused the dark haired fairy as they walked through the wall, "illusions could be handy."

"Yeah they can, we'd better get back to the others and tell them we've found where the problem is then," Estantia said, tilting her head to one side before the slight frown touched her forehead again. "Oh heck, I can't locate them."

"You can't find them?" Flora asked, voice betraying a hint of worry.

"They're probably already inside the Palace," Estantia said, rubbing the back of her head absently as she looked at the wall, "worldlets are fluidic, it shifts according to who's in them so it's physically impossible to pinpoint people inside them unless they're really near an exit."

"You mean the others are lost?"

"Yes," the girl replied dryly, "and because they're not looking for Alfea they could end up absolutely _anywhere_."


	18. Another day, another universe

And Now for the first Crossover! Virtual Cookie for whoever can work out the world before they introduce themselves!

I don't own anything in this apart from Estantia, the plotline and the virtual cookies, which are very tasty.

* * *

"I don't know where we are, but it's really pretty isn't it?" Stella said happily as the group walked down tall corridors with paintings and the occasional vase with or without a plant. The walls were generally a golden colour, the entire place assuming a stately and genteel feel, one which suited the Solarian princess perfectly.

"Interesting, the readings seem to indicate this place isn't entirely real," Tecna murmured, engrossed in her displays.

"Not real?" Bloom asked, "Can we get somewhere that IS real then? Then we might have a chance of working out where we are."

"Well wherever we are it's my kind of place," Stella said appreciatively as Tecna stopped at a junction, Layla absently rubbing her arms,

"You might like it, but it's way too formal for me," she said, "give me Alfea any day."

"The structure of the random factor seems more stable in this direction," the digital fairy commented before turning to her right. The others obediently followed her and found themselves facing a row of windows overlooking a gorgeous neatly trimmed courtyard, overlooking a fountain between the three sides of the building.

"Wow, for not being a real place this view sure is detailed," Layla muttered.

"Actually I believe we just re-entered normal space," Tecna corrected, shutting down her displays, "Of course it's still preferable to be cautious."

"Well we need to ask SOMEONE where we are, so why don't we look in some of the rooms?" Stella said brightly, "Look, this one seems to have people inside."

"I guess there's only one way to find out..." Bloom added and took hold of one large gold handle, opening the door gently to peek inside.

With even that gentle movement light seemed to spill out over the four girls, accompanied by rose petals sweeping around in a beautiful dance that immediately made Stella smile happily,

"Wow, that was beautiful!"

"I'm glad you like our welcoming princess," came the genteel voice of a man, no, a student from inside the room who had swept over to them, blonde hair drifting over stunning purple-blue eyes with a startling intensity before falling into a deep bow.

"Excuse me," came a lighter voice, the girls attention snapping from the blonde to a shorter student with fine brown hair a similar length to Tecna's. With those words the fairies suddenly became aware of the other person in the room, a tall boy with black hair and glasses.

"Would you happen to be lost?" the brown haired one asked politely, ignoring the blonde boy.

"Haruhiii, I wanted to talk to them!"

"Sempai, they're not even wearing our uniform," the brown haired person pointed out before returning her attention to the girls, "I'm sorry, Tamaki-sama is always like that."

"It's okay, but how did he manage to work out we were princesses?" Layla asked curiously, causing some surprised blinks from the darker haired students and a gape from the blonde before regaining his composure with excellent timing, causing Bloom to smile.

"I'm sorry, there seems to have been some misunderstanding," the boy with glasses had shut his laptop and walked over also, "Please come in and sit down while we try and help you."

"Of course! They need to have some tea, for if they're lost they must not have had anything to eat for hours!" The blonde said excitedly before rushing out, the brown haired student shaking their head slightly at his antics before leading them to seats.

"My name is Haruhi Fujioka," they said before indicating the tall man, "this is Kouya Ootori and the blonde is Tamaki Suou, the Host club's king."

"He's a king?" Stella said, surprised, "he doesn't act like it."

At this Kouya gave a brief smile, "It's a title rather than a literal meaning. But please, which school are you from? It may enable us to help you."

"Alfea School for Fairies," Tecna said, every bit as precise as Kouya, "I have a feeling you won't have heard of it?"

"Fairies?" It seemed Tamaki had returned, "But... fairies have wings..."

"We don't have them at the moment," Bloom explained, "We're in human form right now."

"You mean you can shapeshift like Estantia?" Haruhi asked curiously, immediately getting three of the fairies attention. The solar fairy was transforming, showing an overjoyed Tamaki her glittering wings and magic. Kouya seemed to be making notes on the performance in a file, though where he had brought that out from no-one knew.

"You know Estantia? That is helpful," Tecna commented, "But we don't shapeshift precisely, it's simply an activat-"

"Yes, something like that," Bloom interrupted hastily, "Can you contact her? Tell her where we are?"

"I can do that myself using Abi, remember?" the digital fairy replied, "What would she recognise as being this universe?"

"Well," Haruhi started, "she normally refers to us as 'Ouran' or 'Ouran high school host club', but I think she'll recognise it simply from hearing Tamaki in the background..."

At this Tamaki made a face and his lip wobbled cutely, looking pleadingly at the black haired boy, who simply pushed his glasses up his nose. "Mummy, Haruhi's being mean again!"

"Actually that was rather tame compared to normal," Kouya replied absently as he continued to write.

"Mummy...?" Layla said incredulously and Haruhi sighed, Bloom catching on with a smile,

"He seems as unstoppable as Stella."

"But it's who they are," Haruhi said with a tilt of their head and a smile, "Right?" The way she said it made the girls stop for a moment and smile, the simple words suddenly profound.

"Yes, we wouldn't change her."

_SMASH!_

"Except for when she does that," Tecna said with a sigh.

"Don't worry, my father can pay for it!"

Bloom could have sworn she heard a mutter of "Stupid rich kids..." from Haruhi.

* * *

"Welcome," Tamaki bowed as he showed the ladies of the school into the third music room, "To a magical paradise."

"Can someone explain how we ended up helping with an afternoon session?" Layla asked as she walked past the golden mage to get more snacks for Hunny, "I don't seem to remember agreeing..."

"That's Tamaki for you," Estantia replied, letting a flurry of golden sparkles spiral around the girls with a small blonde boy, watching as he tried to catch one of the sparkles. With a gentle nudge she let it rest in his hands and watched the boy's eyes widen as it expanded and burst into a cloud of butterflies, to the happy applause of those watching. "Once he gets an idea very little will stop it, and besides, Hunny IS cute."

"You seem way too used to this," the water fairy muttered as Stella and Bloom (both transformed) flew in circles in a mock battle, the girls watching as Tamaki offered a running commentary, more than occasionally getting distracted by the pretty effects themselves.

"Estantiaaaa!" whined two voices in perfect unison from behind her, "Our little pet's not playing us music!"

"That would be because I'm not a _pet_," Musa retorted with a glare. It seemed that the act the twins had selected was to try and wind up the musical fairy as much as possible. For a moment Estantia wondered whether she should have warned her about the 'little devil' type...

"Didn't you know fairies are free spirits?" she teased them in return, "if you truly want to interest them, you have to give them a _challenge_."

At the word 'challenge' the twins immediately perked up, Musa giving her friend a glare before facing the twins, the battle of wills between them getting to such a pitch that one of the girls fainted at the drama. Musa sighed, sometimes she just didn't understand the fangirl mind, though she had to live with Stella on a day-to-day basis.

Tecna at least seemed happy, those that _did_ designate Kouya were often the more intelligent ones, and the screens and displays the fairy was producing intrigued both the Shadow king and the customers, though you would be hard pressed to tell if the former was truly interested or simply putting on an act. The golden mage suspected he was impressed.

Haruhi however was talking to Flora, the two's combined honest love of nature complimenting each other perfectly. With a gentle movement the nature fairy beckoned to a small pot on the table, speaking to it gently as she urged it grow, blooming into a delicate lily to the awed gasps of girls and the look of gentle wonder on Haruhi's face.

"It seems like the girls have been quite a hit," commented a soft voice from next to the mage, hazel eyes flicking sideways to where Kouya had appeared, "if I'm not mistaken we'll have made almost enough of a profit to cover the Zoo fiasco a few weeks back."

"You always understate how much you're getting from these people," the mage replied easily, "Besides, you're loving the fact that you get enough pretty sparkles to keep Tamaki happy without having to spend a penny."

"And the fact that they're princesses gives an excellent impression also," the bespectacled man responded, "though whether the clients will believe it I'm not entirely sure. Excuse me, would you go and take care of Tamaki-sama? It appears he's about to get himself scorched."

"And hence putting on the agony and ruined beauty act," Estantia muttered as she drifted over to the person who seemed perfectly stable despite hopping from one foot to the other, "Ruddy kings..."


End file.
